ah.  that  Spring  should innishnilhtke Rose! 
That  Youth's  sweet-scented  manuscript  shouldclM| 
The  Nightingale 


TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

DR.  SAMUEL    JOHNSON 
WILLIAM   COWPER 
GEORGE    BORROW 

AND 

GEORGE    CRABBE 

THE  LITERARY  ASSOCIATIONS  OF 

EAST  ANGLIA 

THE  PRIVATE  LIFE  OF  FERDINAND 

LASSALLE 

DR.  JOHNSON'S  ANCESTRY 

LORD  ACTON'S    HUNDRED    BEST    BOOKS 


IMMORTAL  MEMORIES 


By 

CLEMENT   SHORTER 


NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 

HARPER    &    BROTHERS 

PUBLISHERS 
1907 


Butler  and  Tanner,  The  Selwood  Printing  Works,  Frame,  and  London 


PREFATORY 

THE  following  addresses  were  delivered  at  the 
request  of  various  literary  societies  and  com- 
memorative committees.  They  amused  me  to 
write,  and  they  apparently  interested  the  audi- 
ences for  which  they  were  primarily  intended. 
Perhaps  they  do  not  bear  an  appearance  in  print. 
But  they  are  not  for  my  brother-journalists  to 
read  nor  for  the  judicious  men  of  letters.  I  pre- 
fer to  think  that  they  are  intended  solely  for  those 
whom  Hazlitt  styled  "  sensible  people."  Hazlitt 
said  that  "  the  most  sensible  people  to  be  met 
with  in  society  are  men  of  business  and  of  the 
world."  I  am  hoping  that  these  will  buy  my 
book  and  that  some  of  them  will  like  it. 

It  is  recorded  by  Sir  Henry  Taylor  of  Samuel 
Rogers  that  when  he  wrote  that  very  indifferent 
poem,  Italy,  he  said,  "  I  will  make  people  buy. 
Turner  shall  illustrate  my  verse."  It  is  of  no 
importance  that  the  biographer  of  Rogers  tells 


2083079 


vi  PREFATORY 

us  that  the  poet  first  made  the  artist  known  to 
the  world  by  these  illustrations.  Taylor's  story  is 
a  good  one,  and  the  moral  worth  taking  to  heart. 
The  late  Lord  Acton,  most  learned  and  most 
accomplished  of  men,  wrote  out  a  list  of  the 
hundred  best  books  as  he  considered  them  to  be. 
They  were  printed  in  a  popular  magazine. 
They  naturally  excited  much  interest.  I  have 
rescued  them  from  the  pages  of  the  Pall  Mall 
Magazine.  Those  who  will  not  buy  my  book 
for  its  seven  other  essays  may  do  so  on  account  of 
Lord  Acton's  list  of  books  being  here  first  pre- 
served "  between  boards."  I  shall  be  equally 
well  pleased. 

CLEMENT   SHORTER. 
GREAT  MISSENDEN, 
BUCKS. 


CONTENTS 

PACK 
I 

TO    THE    IMMORTAL    MEMORY    OF 

DR.    SAMUEL    JOHNSON        3 

II 
TO    THE    IMMORTAL    MEMORY    OF 

WILLIAM    COVVPER       31 

III 
TO    THE    IMMORTAL    MEMORY    OF 

GEORGE    BORROW       61 

IV 
TO    THE    IMMORTAL    MEMORY    OF 

GEORGE    CRABBE       97 


viii  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

V 
THE    LITERARY    ASSOCIATIONS    OF 

EAST    ANGLIA      131 

VI 
DR.    JOHNSON'S    ANCESTRY  .  157 

VII 
THE    PRIVATE    LIFE    OF 

FERDINAND    LASSALLE      185 

VIII 
LORD  ACTON  AND  THE  HUNDRED  BEST 

BOOKS      225 


TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 
DR.   SAMUEL   JOHNSON 


I.M. 


TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 
DR.  SAMUEL  JOHNSON 

A  toast  proposed  at  the  Johnson  Birthday  Celebration 
held  at  the  Three  Crowns  Inn,  Lichfield*  in  Sep- 
tember,  1906. 

IN  rising  to  propose  this  toast  I  cannot  ignore 
what  must  be  in  many  of  your  minds,  the  re- 
collection that  last  year  it  was  submitted  by  a  very 
dear  friend  of  my  own,  who,  alas  !  has  now  gone 
to  his  rest,  I  mean  Dr.  Richard  Garnett.1  Many 
of  you  who  heard  him  in  this  place  will  recall, 
with  kindly  memories,  that  venerable  scholar.  I 
am  one  of  those  who,  in  the  interval  have  stood 

1  Richard  Garnett  (1835-1906)  was  son  of  the  philologist 
of  the  same  name  who  was  for  a  time  priest-vicar  of  Lichfield 
Cathedral.  He  attended  the  Johnson  Celebration  on  Sept.  18, 
1905,  and  proposed  "  the  Immortal  Memory  of  Dr.  John- 
son." He  died  on  the  following  Good  Friday,  April  13, 
and  was  buried  in  Highgate  Cemetery  April  17,  1906. 


4      TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

beside  his  open  grave  ;  and  I  know  you  will  per- 
mit me  to  testify  here  to  the  fact  that  rarely  has 
such  brilliant  scholarship  been  combined  with 
so  kindly  a  nature,  and  with  so  much  generosity 
to  other  workers  in  the  literary  field.  One  may 
sigh  that  it  is  not  possible  to  perpetuate  for  all 
time  for  the  benefit  of  others  the  vast  mass  of 
learning  which  such  men  as  Dr.  Garnett  are  able 
to  accumulate.  One  may  lament  even  more 
that  one  is  not  able  to  present  in  some  concrete 
form,  as  an  example  to  those  who  follow,  his 
fine  qualities  of  heart  and  mind — his  generous 
faculty  for  *  helping  lame  dogs  over  stiles.' 

Dr.  Garnett  had  not  only  a  splendid  erudition 
that  specially  qualified  him  for  proposing  this 
toast,  he  had  also  what  many  of  you  may  think 
an  equally  exceptional  qualification — he  was  a 
native  of  Lichfield  ;  he  was  born  in  this  fine  city. 
As  a  Londoner — like  Boswell  when  charged  with 
the  crime  of  being  a  Scotsman  I  may  say  that 
I  cannot  help  it — I  suppose  I  should  come  to 
you  with  hesitating  footsteps.  Perhaps  it  was 
rash  of  me  to  come  at  all,  in  spite  of  an  invitation 
so  kindly  worded.  Yet  how  gladly  does  any  lover, 
not  only  of  Dr.  Johnson,  but  of  all  good  literature, 


DR.  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  5 

come  to  Lichfield.  Four  cathedral  cities  of  our 
land  stand  forth  in  my  mind  with  a  certain  mag- 
netic power  to  draw  even  the  most  humble  lover 
of  books  towards  them — Oxford,  Bath,  Norwich, 
Lichfield,  these  four  and  no  others.  Oxford  we 
all  love  and  revere  as  the  nourishing  mother  of 
so  many  famous  men.  Here  we  naturally  recall 
Dr.  Johnson's  love  of  it — his  defence  of  it 
against  all  comers.  The  glamour  of  Oxford  and 
the  memory  of  the  great  men  who  from  age  to 
age  have  walked  its  streets  and  quadrangles,  is 
with  us  upon  every  visit.  Bath  again  has  noble 
memories.  Upon  house  after  house  in  that  fine 
city  is  inscribed  the  fact  that  it  was  at  one  time 
the  home  of  a  famous  man  or  woman  of  the  past. 
Through  its  streets  many  of  our  great  imagin- 
ative writers  have  strolled,  and  those  streets  have 
been  immortalized  in  the  pages  of  several  great 
novelists,  notably  of  Jane  Austen  and  Charles 
Dickens. 

For  the  City  of  Norwich  I  have  a  particular 
affection,  as  for  long  the  home  in  quite  separate 
epochs  of  Sir  Thomas  Browne  and  of  George 
Borrow.  I  recall  that  in  the  reign  of  one  of  its 
Bishops — the  father  of  Dean  Stanley — there 


6      TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

was  a  literary  circle  of  striking  character,  that 
men  and  women  of  intellect  met  in  the  episcopal 
palace  to  discuss  all  '  obstinate  questionings.' 

But  if  he  were  asked  to  choose  between  the 
golden  age  of  Bath,  of  Norwich,  or  of  Lichfield, 
I  am  sure  that  any  man  who  knew  his  books 
would  give  the  palm  to  Lichfield,  and  would 
recall  that  period  in  the  life  of  Lichfield  when 
Dr.  Seward  resided  in  the  Bishop's  Palace,  with 
his  two  daughters,  and  when  they  were 
there  entertaining  so  many  famous  friends. 
I  saw  the  other  day  the  statement  that  Anna 
Seward's  name  was  unknown  to  the  present 
generation.  Now  I  have  her  works  in  nine 
volumes l ;  I  have  read  them,  and  I  doubt  not 
but  that  there  are  many  more  who  have  done  the 
same.  Sir  Walter  Scott's  friendship  would  alone 
preserve  her  memory  if  every  line  she  wrote 

1  Anna  Seward  (1747-1809).  Her  works  were  published 
after  her  death  : — The  Poetical  Works  of  Anna  Seward.  With 
Extracts  from  her  Literary  Correspondence.  Edited  by  Walter 
Scott,  Esq.  In  three  volumes — John  Ballantyne  &  Co.,  1810. 
Letters  of  Anna  Seward  written  between  the  Tears  1784  and 
1807.  In  six  volumes.  Archibald  Constable  &  Co.,  1811. 
"  Longwinded  and  florid  "  one  biographer  calls  her  letters, 
but  by  the  aid  of  what  Scott  calls  '  the  laudable  practice  of 
skipping  '  they  are  quite  entertaining. 


DR.  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  7 

deserved  to  be  forgotten  as  is  too  readily- 
assumed.  Scott,  indeed,  professed  admiration 
for  her  verse,  and  a  yet  greater  poet,  Wordsworth, 
wrote  in  praise  of  two  fine  lines  at  the  close  of 
one  of  her  sonnets,  that  entitled  '  Invitation  to 
a  Friend,'  lines  which  I  believe  present  the  first 
appearance  in  English  poetry  of  the  form  of 
blank  verse  immortalized  by  Tennyson. 

Come,  that  I  may  not  hear  the  winds  of  night, 
Nor  count  the  heavy  eave-drops  as  they  fall. 

"  You  have  well  criticized  the  poetic  powers 
of  this  lady,"  says  Wordsworth,  "  but,  after  all, 
her  verses  please  me,  with  all  their  faults,  better 
than  those  of  Mrs.  Barbauld,  who,  with  much 
higher  powers  of  mind,  was  spoiled  as  a  poetess 
by  being  a  dissenter." 

Less,  however,  can  be  said  for  her  poetry  to-day 
than  for  her  capacity  as  a  letter  writer.  A  letter 
writing  faculty  has  immortalized  more  than  one 
English  author,  Horace  Walpole  for  example, 
who  had  this  in  common  with  Anna  Seward, 
that  he  had  the  bad  taste  not  to  like  Dr.  Johnson. 

Sooner  or  later  there  will  be  a  reprint  of  a 
selection  of  Anna  Seward's  correspondence ; 
you  will  find  in  it  a  picture  of  country  life  in  the 


8      TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

middle  of  the  eighteenth  century — and  by  that 
I  mean  Lichfield  life — that  is  quite  unsurpassed. 
Anna  Seward^  her  friends  and  her  enemies, 
stand  before  us  in  very  marked  outline.  As 
with  Walpole  also,  she  must  have  written  with 
an  eye  to  publication.  Veracity  was  not  her 
strong  point,  but  her  literary  faculty  was  very 
marked  indeed.  Those  who  have  read  the  letters 
that  treat  of  her  sister's  betrothal  and  death,  for 
example,  will  not  easily  forget  them.  The 
accepted  lover,  you  remember,  was  a  Mr.  Porter, 
a  son  of  the  widow  whom  Johnson  married  ;  and 
Sarah  Seward,  aged  only  eighteen,  died  soon 
after  her  betrothal  to  him.  That  is  but  one 
of  a  thousand  episodes  in  the  world  into  which 
we  are  introduced  in  these  pages.1 

1  Sir  Robert  Thomas  White-Thomson,  K.C.B.,  wrote  to 
me  in  reference  to  this  estimate  of  Miss  Seward  from  Broom- 
ford  Manor,  Exbourne,  North  Devon,  and  his  letter  seemed 
of  sufficient  importance  from  a  genealogical  standpoint  for  me 
to  ask  his  permission  to  make  an  extract  from  the  letter  : 
"  I  have  read  your  address  in  a  Lichfield  newspaper.  Apart 
from  the  wider  and  more  important  bearings  of  your 
words,  those  which  had  reference  to  the  Seward  family  were 
especially  welcome  to  me.  You  will  understand  this  when  I 
tell  you  that,  with  the  exception  of  the  Romney  portrait  of 
Anna,  and  a  few  other  objects  left  '  away '  by  her  will,  my 


DR.  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  9 

The  Bishop's  Palace  was  the  scene  of  brilliant 
symposiums.  There  one  might  have  met  Erasmus 
Darwin  of  the  Botanic  Garden,  whose  fame 
has  been  somewhat  dulled  by  the  extra- 
ordinary genius  of  his  grandson.  There  also 
came  Richard  Edgeworth,  the  father  of  Maria, 
whose  Castle  Rackrent  and  The  Absentee  are 
still  among  the  most  delightful  books  that  we 
read ;  and  there  were  the  two  young  girls, 
Honora  and  Elizabeth  Sneyd,  who  were  des- 
tined in  succession  to  become  Richard  Edge- 
worth's  wives.  There,  above  all,  was  Thomas 
Day,  the  author  of  Sanford  and  Merton,  a  book 
•which  delighted  many  of  us  when  we  were 

grandfather,  Thomas  White,  of  Lichfield  Close,  her  cousin 
and  residuary  legatee,  became  possessed  of  all  the  contents  of 
her  house.  Some  of  the  books  and  engravings  were  sold  by 
auction,  but  the  remainder  were  taken  good  care  of,  and  passed 
to  me  on  my  mother's  death  in  1860.  As  thus,  '  in  a  way  '  the 
representative  of  the  '  Swan  of  Lichfield,'  you  can  easily  see 
what  such  an  appreciation  of  her  as  was  yours  means  to  me.  Of 
course  I  know  her  weak  points,  and  how  the  pot  of  clay  must 
suffer  in  trying  to  '  bump  '  the  pot  of  iron  in  midstream,  but  I 
also  know  that  she  was  no  ordinary  personage  in  her  day,  when 
the  standard  of  feminine  culture  was  low,  and  I  have  resented 
some  things  that  have  been  written  of  her.  Mrs.  Oliphant 
treats  her  kindly  in  her  Literary  History  of  England,  and  now  I 
have  your  '  appreciation  '  of  her,  for  which  I  beg  to  thank  you." 


io   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

young,  and  which  I  imagine  with  all  its  prig- 
gishness   will    always    survive    as    a    classic    for 
children.     There,  for   a   short  time,  came  Major 
Andre,   betrothed  to   Honora    Sneyd,   but    des- 
tined   to    die    so    tragically    in    the    American 
War  of  Independence.      It  is  to  Miss    Seward's 
malicious  talent  as  a  letter  writer  that  we  owe 
the    exceedingly    picturesque    account    of   Day's 
efforts  to  obtain  a  wife  upon  a  particular  pattern, 
his  selection  of  Sabrina  Sidney,  whom  he  prepared 
for  that  high  destiny  by  sending  her  to  a  boarding 
school  until  she  was  of  the  right  age — his  lessons 
in    stoicism — his    disappointment    because    she 
screamed  when  he  fired  pistols  at  her  petticoats? 
and    yelled   when   he    dropped    melted   sealing- 
wax  on  her  bare  arms ;  it  is  a  tragi-comic  picture, 
and  one  is  glad  that  Sabrina  married  some  other 
man  than  her  exacting  guardian.     But  we  would 
not    miss    Miss    Seward's    racy   stories    for  any- 
thing, nor  ignore  her  many  letters  with  their 
revelation  of   the  glories  of    old-time  Lichfield, 
and    of    those  '  lunar    meetings '   at  which  the 
wise  ones  foregathered.     Now  and  again  these 
worthies    burst    into    sarcasm    at    one    another's 
expense,  as  when  Darwin  satirizes  the  publica- 


DR.  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  n 

tion  of  Mr.  Seward's   edition  of  Beaumont   and 
Fletcher,  and  Dr.  Johnson's  edition  of  Shakspere 

From  Lichfield  famed  two  giant  critics  come, 
Tremble,  ye  Poets  !  hear  them  !     Fe,  Fo,  Fum  ! 
By  Seward's  arm  the  mangled  Beaumont  bled, 
And  Johnson  grinds  poor  Shakspere's  bones  for  bread. 

"  But  perhaps  after  all,  if  we  eliminate  Dr. 
Johnson,  the  lover  of  letters  gives  the  second 
place,  not  to  Miss  Seward  and  her  circle,  but 
to  David  Garrick.  Lichfield  contains  more  than 
one  memento  of  that  great  man.  The  actor's 
art  is  a  poor  sort  of  thing  as  a  rule.  Johnson, 
in  his  tarter  moments,  expresses  this  attitude, 
as  when  he  talked  of  Garrick  as  a  man  who 
exhibited  himself  for  a  shilling,  when  he  called 
him  '  a  futile  fellow,'  and  implied  that  it  was 
very  unworthy  of  Lord  Campden  to  have  made 
much  of  the  actor  and  to  have  ignored  so  dis- 
tinguished a  writer  as  Goldsmith,  when  thrown 
into  the  company  of  both.  Still  undoubtedly 
Johnson's  last  word  upon  Garrick  is  the  best — 
(  his  death  has  eclipsed  the  gaiety  of  nations  and 
diminished  the  public  stock  of  harmless  pleasure.' 
We  who  live  more  than  a  hundred  years  later  are 
able  to  recognize  that  Garrick  has  been  the  one 


12   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

great  actor  from  that  age  to  this.  As  a  rule  the 
mummers  are  mimics  and  little  more,  and  gener- 
ations go  on,  giving  them  their  brief  but  glorious 
hour  of  fame,  and  then  leaving  them  as  mere 
names  in  the  history  of  the  stage.  Garrick  was 
preserved  from  this  fate,  not  only  by  the  circum- 
stance that  he  had  an  army  of  distinguished  literary 
friends,  but  by  his  interesting  personality  and 
by  his  own  writings.  Many  lines  of  his  plays 
and  prologues  have  become  part  of  current  speech. 
Moreover  his  must  have  been  a  great  personality, 
as  those  of  us  who  have  met  Sir  Henry  Irving  in 
these  latter  days  have  realized  that  his  was  also 
a  great  personality.  It  is  fitting,  therefore,  that 
these  two  great  actors,  the  most  famous  of  an 
interesting,  if  not  always  an  heroic  profession, 
should  lie  side  by  side  in  Westminster  Abbey. 
I  now  come  to  my  toast  "  The  memory  of 
Dr.  Johnson."  After  all,  Johnson  was  the  great- 
est of  all  Lichfieldians,  and  one  of  the  great  men 
of  his  own  and  of  all  ages.  We  may  talk  about 
him  and  praise  him  because  we  shall  be  the  better 
for  so  doing,  but  we  shall  certainly  say  nothing 
new.  One  or  two  points,  however,  seem  to  me 
worthy  of  emphasis  in  this  company  of  John- 


DR.  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  13 

sonians.  I  think  we  should  resent  two  popular 
fallacies  which  you  will  not  hear  from  literary 
students,  but  only  from  one  whom  it  is  con- 
venient to  call  "  the  man  in  the  street."  The 
first  is,  that  we  should  know  nothing  about 
Johnson  if  it  were  not  for  BoswelPs  famous  life, 
and  the  second  that  Johnson  the  author  is 
dead,  and  that  our  great  hero  only  lives  as  a 
brilliant  conversationalist  in  the  pages  of  Bos- 
well  and  others.  Boswell's  Life  of  Johnson  is 
the  greatest  biography  in  the  English  language  ; 
we  all  admit  that.  It  is  crowded  with  in- 
cident and  anecdote.  Neither  Walter  Scott 
nor  Rousseau,  each  of  whom  has  had  an  equal 
number  of  pages  devoted  to  his  personality, 
lives  so  distinctly  for  future  ages  as  does  John- 
son in  the  pages  of  Boswell.  Understanding 
all  this,  we  are  entitled  to  ask  ourselves  what  we 
should  have  thought  of  Dr.  Johnson  had  there 
been  no  Boswell ;  and  to  this  question  I  do  not 
hesitate  to  answer  that  we  should  have  loved  him 
as  much  as  ever,  and  that  there  would  still  have 
been  a  mass  of  material  with  the  true  Boswellian 
flavour.  He  would  not  have  made  an  appeal  to 
so  large  a  public,  but  some  ingenious  person 


14  TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

would  have  drawn  together  all  the  anecdotes, 
all  the  epigrams,  all  the  touches  of  that  fine 
humanity,  and  given  us  from  these  various  sources 
an  amalgam  of  Johnson,  that  every  bookman  at 
least  would  have  desired  to  read  and  study.  In 
Fanny  Burney's  Letters  and  Diaries  the  presenta- 
tion of  Johnson  is  delightful.  I  wonder  very  much 
that  all  the  Johnson  fragments  that  Miss  Burney 
provides  have  not  been  published  separately. 
Then  Mrs.  Thrale  has  chatted  about  Johnson 
copiously  in  her  "  Anecdotes,"  and  these  pleasant 
stories  have  been  re-printed  again  and  again  for 
the  curious.  I  recall  many  other  sources  of 
information  about  the  great  man  and  his  wonder- 
ful talk — by  Miss  Hawkins,  Miss  Reynolds,  Miss 
Hannah  More  for  example — and  many  of  you  who 
have  Dr.  Birkbeck  Hill's  Johnson  Miscellanies 
have  these  in  a  pleasantly  acceptable  form. 

My  second  point  is  concerned  with  Dr.  John- 
son's position  apart  from  all  this  fund  of  anecdote, 
and  this  brilliant  collection  of  unforgettable 
epigram  in  Boswell  and  elsewhere.  As  a  writer, 
many  will  tell  you,  Dr.  Johnson  is  dead.  The 
thing  is  absurd  on  the  face  of  it.  There  is  room 
for  some  disagreement  as  to  his  position  as  a  poet. 


DR.  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  15 

On  that  question  of  poetry  unanimity  is  ever 
hard  to  seek ;  so  many  mistake  rhetoric  for 
poetry.  Only  twice  at  the  most,  it  seems  to  me, 
does  Dr.  Johnson  reach  anything  in  the  shape  of 
real  inspiration  in  his  many  poems,1  although  it 
must  be  admitted  that  earlier  generations  admired 
them  greatly.  To  have  been  praised  ardently 
by  Sir  Walter  Scott,  by  Byron,  and  by  Tennyson 
should  seem  sufficient  to  demonstrate  that  he 
was  a  poet,  were  it  not  that,  as  I  could  prove  if 
time  allowed,  poets  are  almost  invariably  bad  critics 
of  poetry.  Sir  Walter  Scott  read  The  Vanity 
of  Human  Wishes  with  "  a  choking  sensation  in  the 
throat,"  and  declared  that  he  had  more  pleasure 
in  reading  that  and  Johnson's  other  long  poem, 
London,  than  any  other  poetic  compositions  he 
could  mention.  But  then  I  think  it  was  always 
the  sentiment  in  verse,  and  not  its  quality,  that 
attracted  Scott.  Byron  also  declared  that  The 
Vanity  of  Human  Wishes  was  "  a  great  poem." 

1  Once  certainly  in  the  lines  "  On  the  Death  of  Mr.  Robert 
Levet "  :- 

Well  try'd  through  many  a  varying  year, 

See  Levet  to  the  grave  descend, 
Officious,  innocent,  sincere, 

Of  ev'ry  friendless  name  the  friend. 


1 6  TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

Certainly  these  poems  are  quotable  poems.  Who 
does  not  recall  the  line  about  "  surveying  man- 
kind from  China  to  Peru,"  or  think,  as  Johnson 
taught  us,  to  : — 

Mark  what  ills  the  scholar's  life  assail, 
Toil,  envy,  want,  the  patron,  and  the  jail. 

Or  remember  his  epitaph  on  one  who  : — 

Left  a  name  at  which  the  world  grew  pale, 
To  point  a  moral  or  adorn  a  tale. 

One  line — "  Superfluous  lags  the  veteran  on  the 
stage  "  has  done  duty  again  and  again.  I  might 
quote  a  hundred  such  examples  to  show  Johnson, 
whatever  his  qualities  as  a  poet,  is  very  much 
alive  indeed  in  his  verse.  It  is,  however,  as  a 
great  prose  writer,  that  I  prefer  to  consider  him. 
Here  he  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  permanent 
forces  in  our  literature.  Rasselas,  for  example, 
while  never  ranking  with  us  moderns  quite  so 
high  as  it  did  with  the  excellent  Miss  Jenkins  in 
Cranford,  is  a  never  failing  delight.  So  far  from 
being  a  dead  book,  is  there  a  young  man  or  a 
young  woman  setting  out  in  the  world  of  to-day, 
aspiring  to  an  all-round  literary  cultivation,  who 


DR.  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  17 

is  not  required  to  know  it  ?  It  has  been  re-pub- 
lished continually.  What  novelist  of  our  time 
would  not  give  much  to  have  so  splendid  a 
public  recognition  as  was  provided  when  Lord 
Beaconsfield,  then  Mr.  Disraeli,  after  the  Abys- 
sinian Expedition,  pictured  in  the  House  of 
Commons  "  the  elephants  of  Asia  dragging  the 
artillery  of  Europe  over  the  mountains  of 
Rasselas." 

Equally  in  evidence  are  those  wonderful  Lives 
of  The  Poets  which  Johnson  did  not  complete 
until  he  was  seventy-two  years  of  age,  literary 
efforts  which  have  always  seemed  to  me  to  be 
an  encouraging  demonstration  that  we  should 
never  allow  ourselves  to  grow  old.  Many  of  these 
'  Lives '  are  very  beautiful.  They  are  all  sugges- 
tive. Only  the  other  day  I  read  them  again  in 
the  fine  new  edition  that  was  prepared  by  that 
staunch  Johnsonian,  Dr.  Birkbeck  Hill.  The 
greatest  English  critic  of  these  latter  days,  Mr. 
Matthew  Arnold,  showed  his  appreciation  by 
making  a  selection  from  them  for  popular  use. 
From  age  to  age  every  man  with  the  smallest 
profession  of  interest  in  literature  will  study 
them.  Of  how  many  books  can  this  be  said  ? 


I.M. 


1 8   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

Greatest  of  all  was  Johnson  as  a  writer  in 
his  least  premeditated  work,  his  Prayers  and. 
Meditations.  They  take  rank  in  my  mind  with 
the  very  best  things  of  their  kind,  The  Medi- 
tations of  Marcus  Aurelius,  The  Confessions  of 
Rousseau,  and  similar  books.  They  are  healthier 
than  any  of  their  rivals.  William  Cowper, 
that  always  fascinating  poet  and  beautiful 
letter  writer,  more  than  once  disparaged 
Johnson  in  this  connexion.  Cowper  said  that 
he  would  like  to  have  "  dusted  Johnson's  jacket 
until  his  pension  rattled  in  his  pocket,"  for  what 
he  had  said  about  Milton.  He  read  some  ex- 
tracts, after  Johnson's  death,  from  the  Medita- 
tions, and  wrote  contemptuously  of  them.1  But 
if  Cowper  had  always  possessed,  in  addition  to  his 

1  Prayers  and  Meditations :  composed  by  Samuel  Johnson, 
LL.D.,  and  published  from  his  Manuscripts  by  George  Stra- 
ham,  D.D.,  Prebendary  of  Rochester  and  Vicar  of  Islington  in 
Middlesex,  1785.  Dr.  Birkbeck  Hill  suggests  that  Johnson 
could  not  have  contemplated  the  publication  of  the  work  in  its 
entirety,  but  the  world  is  the  better  for  the  self  revelation,  not- 
withstanding Cowper's  remark  in  a  letter  to  Newton  (August 
27,  1785),  that  "  the  publisher  of  it  is  neither  much  a  friend 
to  the  cause  of  religion  nor  to  the  author's  memory ;  for  by  the 
specimen  of  it  that  has  reached  us,  it  seems  to  contain  only  such 
»tuff  as  has  a  direct  tendency  to  expose  both  to  ridicule." 


DR.  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  19 

fascinating  other-worldliness  the  healthy  world- 
liness  of  Dr.  Johnson,  perhaps  we  should  all 
have  been  the  happier.  To  me  that  collection 
of  Prayers  and  Meditations  seems  one  of  the 
most  helpful  books  that  I  have  ever  read,  and  I 
am  surprised  that  it  is  not  constantly  re-printed 
in  a  handy  form.1  It  is  a  valuable  inspiration 
to  men  to  keep  up  their  spirits  under  adverse 
conditions,  to  conquer  the  weaknesses  of  their 
natures ;  not  in  the  stifling  manner  of  Thomas 
a  Kempis,  but  in  a  breezy,  robust  way.  Yes, 
I  think  that  these  three  works,  Rasselas,  The 
Lives  of  the  Poets,  and  the  Prayers  and  Medita- 
tions, make  it  quite  clear  that  Johnson  still 
holds  his  place  as  one  of  our  greatest  writers, 
even  if  we  were  not  familiar  with  his  many 
delightful  letters,  and  had  not  read  his  Rambler — 
which  his  old  enemy,  Miss  Anna  Seward,  insisted 
was  far  better  than  Addison's  Spectator. 

All  this  is  only  to  say  that  we  cannot  have  too 
much  of  Dr.  Johnson.  The  advantage  of  such  a 
gathering  as  this  is  that  it  helps  us  to  keep  that 

1  There  is  an  edition  with  a  brief  Introduction  by  Augustine 
Birrell,  published  by  Elliot  Stock  in  1904,  and  another,  with  an 
Introduction  by  "  H.  C.,"  was  issued  by  H.  R.  Allenson  in  1906. 


20  TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

fact  alive.  Moreover,  I  feel  that  it  is  a  good 
thing  if  we  can  hearten  those  who  have  devoted 
themselves  to  laborious  research  connected  with 
such  matters.  Take,  for  example,  the  work  of 
Dr.  Birkbeck  Hill :  his  many  volumes  are  a 
delight  to  the  Johnson  student.  I  knew  Dr.  Hill 
very  well,  and  I  have  often  felt  that  his  work  did 
not  receive  half  the  encouragement  that  it  deserved. 
We  hear  sometimes,  at  least  in  London,  of  authors 
who  advertise  themselves.  I  rather  fancy  that 
all  such  advertisement  is  monopolized  by  the 
novelist,  and  that  the  newspapers  do  not  trouble 
themselves  very  much  about  literary  men  who  work 
in  other  fields  than  that  of  fiction.  Fiction  has 
much  to  be  said  for  it,  but  as  a  rule  it  reaps  its 
reward  very  promptly,  both  in  finance  and  in 
fame.  No  such  rewards  come  to  the  writer  of 
biography,  to  the  writer  of  history,  to  the  literary 
editor.  Dr.  Hill's  beautiful  edition  of  Boswell's 
Life,  with  all  its  fascinating  annotation,  did  not 
reach  a  second  edition  in  his  lifetime.  I  am  afraid 
that  the  sum  that  he  made  out  of  it,  or  that  his 
publishers  made  out  of  it,  would  seem  a  very  poor 
reward  indeed  when  gauged  by  the  results  in  other 
fields  of  labour. 


DR.  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  21 

Within  the  past  few  weeks  I  have  had  the 
privilege  of  reading  a  book  that  continues  these 
researches.  Mr.  Aleyn  Lyell  Reade  has  pub- 
lished a  handsome  tome,  which  he  has  privately- 
printed,  entitled  Dr.  Johnson's  Ancestry  :  His 
Kinsfolk  and  Family  Connexions.  I  am  glad  to 
hear  that  the  Johnson  Museum  has  purchased  a 
copy,  for  such  a  work  deserves  every  encourage- 
ment. The  author  must  have  spent  hundreds 
of  pounds,  without  the  faintest  possibility  of 
obtaining  either  fame  or  money  from  the  tran- 
saction. He  seems  to  have  employed  copyists 
in  every  town  in  Staffordshire,  to  copy  wills, 
registers  of  births  and  deaths,  and  kindred 
records  from  the  past.  Now  Dr.  Birkbeck  Hill 
could  not  have  afforded  to  do  this ;  he  was  by 
no  means  a  rich  man.  Mr.  Reade  has  clearly 
been  able  to  spare  no  expense,  with  the  result 
that  here  are  many  interesting  facts  corrective 
of  earlier  students.  The  whole  is  a  valuable 
record  of  the  ancestry  of  Dr.  Johnson.  It  shows 
clearly  that  whereas  Dr.  Johnson  thought  very 
little  of  his  ancestry,  and  scarcely  knew  anything 
of  his  grandfather  on  the  paternal  or  the  maternal 
side,  he  really  sprang  from  a  very  remarkable 


22   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

stock,  notably  on  the  maternal  side  ;  and  that 
his  mother's  family,  the  Fords,  had  among 
their  connexions  all  kinds  of  fairly  prosperous 
people,  clergymen,  officials,  professional  men  as 
well  as  sturdy  yeomen.  These  ancestors  of  Dr. 
Johnson  did  not  help  him  much  to  push  his  way 
in  the  world.  Of  some  of  them  he  had  scarcely 
heard.  All  the  same  it  is  of  great  interest 
to  us  to  know  this ;  it  in  a  manner  explains 
him.  That  before  Samuel  Johnson  was  born, 
one  of  his  family  had  been  Lord  Mayor  of 
London,  another  a  Sheriff,  that  they  had  been 
associated  in  various  ways,  not  only  with  the 
city  of  his  birth,  but  also  with  the  great  city 
which  Johnson  came  to  love  so  much,  is  to  let  in 
a  flood  of  fresh  light  upon  our  hero.  My  time 
does  not  permit  me  to  do  more  than  make  a 
passing  reference  to  this  book,  but  I  should  like 
to  offer  here  a  word  of  thanks  to  its  author  for 
his  marvellous  industry,  and  a  word  of  congratula- 
tion to  him  for  the  extraordinary  success  that 
has  accrued  to  his  researches. 

I  mention  Mr.  Reade's  book  because  it  is  full  of 
Lichfield  names  and  Lichfield  associations,  and 
it  is  with  Dr.  Johnson's  life-long  connexion  with 


DR.  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  23 

Lichfield  that  all  of  us  are  thinking  to-night. 
Now  here  I  may  say,  without  any  danger  of  being 
challenged  by  some  visitor  who  has  the  misfortune 
not  to  be  a  citizen  of  Lichfield — you  who  are  will 
not  wish  to  challenge  me — that  this  city  has 
distinguished  itself  in  quite  an  unique  way.  I  do 
not  believe  that  it  can  be  found  that  any  other 
town  or  city  of  England — I  will  not  say  of  Scot- 
land or  of  Ireland — has  done  honour  to  a  literary 
son  in  the  same  substantial  measure  that  Lich- 
field has  done  honour  to  Samuel  Johnson.  The 
peculiar  glory  of  the  deed  is  that  it  was  done  to 
the  living  Johnson,  not  coming,  as  so  many 
honours  do,  too  late  for  a  man  to  find  pleasure 
in  the  recognition.  We  know  that — 

Seven  wealthy  towns  contend  for  Homer  dead, 
Through  which  the  living  Homer  begged  his   bread. 

But  I  doubt  whether  in  the  whole  history  of 
literature  in  England  it  can  be  found  that  any 
other  purely  literary  man  has  received  in  his 
lifetime  so  substantial  a  mark  of  esteem  from 
the  city  which  gave  him  birth,  as  Johnson  did 
when  your  Corporation,  in  1767,  "  at  a  common- 
hall  of  the  bailiffs  and  citizens,  without  any 


24  TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

solicitation,"  presented  him  with  the  ninety- 
nine  years'  lease  of  the  house  in  which  he  was 
born.  Your  citizens  not  only  did  that  for  John- 
son, but  they  gave  him  other  marks  of  their 
esteem.  He  writes  from  Lichfield  to  Sir  Joshua 
Reynolds  to  express  his  pleasure  that  his  portrait 
has  been  "  much  visited  and  much  admired." 
"  Every  man,"  he  adds,  "  has  a  lurking  desire  to 
appear  considerable  in  his  native  place."  Then 
we  all  remember  BoswelFs  naive  confession  that 
his  pleasure  at  finding  his  hero  so  much  beloved? 
led  him,  when  the  pair  arrived  at  this  very 
hostelry,  to  imbibe  too  much  of  the  famous  Lich- 
field ale.  If  Boswell  wished,  as  he  says,  to  offer 
incense  to  the  spirit  of  the  place,  how  much 
more  may  we  desire  to  do  so  to-night,  when 
exactly  125  years  have  passed,  and  his  hero  is 
now  more  than  ever  recognized  as  a  king  of  men. 
I  do  not  suggest  that  we  should  honour 
Johnson  in  quite  the  same  way  that  Boswell 
did.  This  is  a  more  abstemious  age.  But 
we  must  drink  to  his  memory  all  the  same. 
Think  of  it.  A  century  and  a  quarter  have 
passed  since  that  memorable  evening  at  the 
Three  Crowns,  when  Johnson  and  Boswell  thus 


DR.  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  25 

foregathered  in  this  very  room.  You  recall 
the  journey  from  Birmingham  of  the  two  com- 
panions. "  We  are  getting  out  of  a  state 
of  death,"  the  Doctor  said  with  relief,  as  he 
approached  his  native  city,  feeling  all  the 
magic  and  invigoration  that  is  said  to  come  to 
those  who  in  later  years  return  to  "  calf-land." 
Then  how  good  he  was  to  an  old  schoolfellow 
who  called  upon  him  here.  The  fact  that  this 
man  had  failed  in  the  battle  of  life  while  Johnson 
had  succeeded,  only  made  the  Doctor  the  kinder. 
I  know  of  no  more  human  picture  than  that — 
"  A  Mr.  Jackson,"  as  he  is  called  by  Boswell,  "  in 
his  coarse  grey  coat,"  obviously  very  poor,  and 
as  Boswell  suggests,  ((  dull  and  untaught."  The 
"  great  Cham  of  Literature "  listens  patiently 
as  the  worthy  Jackson  tells  his  troubles,  so  much 
more  patiently  than  he  would  have  listened  to 
one  of  the  famous  men  of  his  Club  in  Lon- 
don, and  the  hero-worshipping  Boswell  drinks 
his  deep  potations,  but  never  neglects  to  take 
notes  the  while.  Of  Boswell  one  remembers 
further  that  Johnson  had  told  Wilkes  that  he  had 
brought  him  to  Lichfield,  "  my  native  city," 
"  that  he  might  see  for  once  real  Civility — for 


26  TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

you  know  he  lives  among  savages  in  Scotland, 
and  among  rakes  in  London."  All  good  stories 
are  worth  hearing  again  and  again,  and  so  I 
offer  an  apology  for  recalling  the  picture  to 
your  mind  at  this  time  and  in  this  place. 

Alas !  I  have  not  the  gift  of  the  worldfamed 
Lord  Verulam,  who,  as  Francis  Bacon,  sat  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  The  members,  we  are  told, 
so  delighted  in  his  oratory  that  when  he  rose  to 
speak  they  "  were  fearful  lest  he  should  make 
an  end."  I  am  making  an  end.  Johnson  then 
was  not  only  a  great  writer,  a  conversationalist 
so  unique  that  his  sayings  have  passed  more  into 
current  speech  than  those  of  any  other  English- 
man, but  he  was  also  a  great  moralist — a  superb 
inspiration  to  a  better  life.  We  should  not  love 
Johnson  so  much  were  he  not  presented  to  us  as  a 
man  of  many  weaknesses  and  faults  akin  to  our 
own,  not  a  saint  by  any  means,  and  therefore  not 
so  far  removed  from  us  as  some  more  ethereal 
characters  of  whom  we  may  read.  Johnson 
striving  to  methodize  his  life,  to  fight  against 
sloth  and  all  the  minor  vices  to  which  he  was 
prone,  is  the  Johnson  whom  some  of  us  prefer  to 
keep  ever  in  mind.  "  Here  was,"  I  quote 


DR.  SAMUEL  JOHNSON  27 

Carlyle,  "  a  strong  and  noble  man,  one  of  our 
great  English  souls."  I  love  him  best  in  his  book 
called  Prayers  and  Meditations,  where  we  know 
him  as  we  know  scarcely  any  other  Englishman, 
for  the  good,  upright  fighter  in  this  by  no  means 
easy  battle  of  life.  It  is  as  such  a  fighter  that  we 
think  of  him  to-night.  Reading  the  account  of 
his  battles  may  help  us  to  fight  ours. 

Gentlemen,  I  give  you  the  toast  of  the  evening. 
Let  us  drink  in  solemn  silence,  upstanding,  "  The 
Immortal  Memory  of  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson." 


TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 
WILLIAM    COWPER 


II 

TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 
WILLIAM    COWPER 

An  address  entitled  '  The  Sanity  of  Cowper/  delivered  at 
the  Centenary  Celebration  at  Olney,  Bucks,  on  the 
occasion  of  the  Hundredth  Anniversary  of  the 
Death  of  the  poet  William  Cowper,  April  25, 1900. 

I  OWE  some  apology  for  coming  down  to  Olney 
to  take  part  in  what  I  believe  is  a  purely- 
local  celebration,  in  which  no  other  Londoner, 
as  far  as  I  know,  has  been  asked  to  take  part. 
I  am  here  not  because  I  profess  any  special 
qualification  to  speak  about  Cowper,  in  the  town 
with  which  his  name  is  so  pleasantly  associated, 
but  because  Mr.  Mackay,1  the  son-in-law  of  your 
Vicar,  has  ^written  a  book  about  the  Brontes,  and 
I  have  done  likewise,  and  he  asked  me  to  come. 

1  The  Rev.  Angus  Mackay,  author  of  The  Brontes  In  Fact 
and  Fiction.  He  was  Rector  of  Holy  Trinity  Church,  Dean 
Bridge,  Edinburgh,  when  he  died,  aged  54,  on  New  Year's 
Day,  1907.  Earlier  in  life  he  had  been  a  Curate  at  Olney. 

81 


32   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

This  common  interest  has  little,  you  will  say,  to  do 
with  the  Poet  of  Olney.  Between  Cowper  and 
Charlotte  Bronte  there  were,  however,  not  a 
few  points  of  likeness  or  at  least  of  contrast.  Both 
were  the  children  of  country  clergymen  ;  both 
lived  lives  of  singular  and,  indeed,  unusual 
strenuousness ;  both  were  the  very  epitome  of  a 
strong  Protestantism  ;  and  yet  both — such  is 
the  inevitable  toleration  of  genius — were  drawn 
in  an  unusual  manner  to  attachment  to  friends 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church — Cowper  to 
Lady  Throckmorton,  who  copied  out  some  of 
his  translations  from  Homer  for  him,  assisted  by 
her  father-confessor,  Dr.  Gregson,  and  Miss 
Bronte  to  her  Professor,  M.  Heger,  the  man  in 
the  whole  world  whom  she  most  revered.  Under 
circumstances  of  peculiar  depression  both  these 
great  Protestant  writers  went  further  on  occasion 
than  their  Protestant  friends  would  have  approved, 
Cowper  to  contemplate — so  he  assures  us  in  one 
of  his  letters — the  entering  a  French  monastery, 
and  Miss  Bronte  actually  to  kneel  in  the  Confes- 
sional in  a  Brussels  church.  Further,  let  me 
remind  you  that  there  were  moments  in  the  lives 
of  Charlotte  Bronte  and  her  sisters,  when  Cow- 


WILLIAM  COWPER  33 

per's  poem,  'The  Castaway,  was  their  most  soul- 
stirring  reading.  Then,  again,  Mary  Unwin's 
only  daughter  became  the  wife  of  a  Vicar  of 
Dewsbury,  and  it  was  at  Dewsbury  and  to  the 
very  next  vicar,  that  Mr.  Bronte,  the  father  of 
Charlotte,  was  curate  when  he  first  went  into 
Yorkshire.  Finally,  let  it  be  recalled  that  Cowper 
and  Charlotte  Bronte  have  attracted  as  much 
attention  by  the  pathos  of  their  lives  as  by  any- 
thing that  they  wrote.  Thus  far,  and  no  further, 
can  a  strained  analogy  carry  us.  The  most  enthu- 
siastic admirers  of  the  Brontes  can  only  claim  for 
them  that  they  permanently  added  certain 
artistic  treasures  to  our  literature.  Cowper 
did  incomparably  more  than  this.  His  work 
marked  an  epoch. 

But  first  let  me  say  how  interested  we  who 
are  strangers  naturally  feel  in  being  in  Olney.  To 
every  lover  of  literature  Olney  is  made  classic 
ground  by  the  fact  that  Cowper  spent  some 
twenty  years  of  his  life  in  it — not  always  with 
too  genial  a  contemplation  of  the  place  and  its 
inhabitants.  "  The  genius  of  Cowper  throws 
a  halo  of  glory  over  all  the  surroundings  of  Olney 
and  Weston,"  says  Dean  Burgon.  But  Olney 


34  TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

has  claims  apart  from  Cowper.  John  Newton1 
presents  himself  to  me  as  an  impressive  person- 
ality. There  was  a  time,  indeed,  of  youthful 
impetuosity  when  I  positively  hated  him,  for 
Southey,  whose  biography  I  read  very  early  in  life, 
certainly  endeavours  to  assist  the  view  that 
Newton  was  largely  responsible  for  the  poet's 
periodical  attacks  of  insanity. 

But  a  careful  survey  of  the  facts  modifies  any 
such  impression.  Newton  was  narrow  at  times, 
he  was  over-concerned  as  to  the  letter,  often 
ignoring  the  spirit  of  true  piety,  but  the 
student  of  the  two  volumes  of  his  Life  and  Corre- 
spondence that  we  owe  to  Josiah  Bull,  will  be  com- 
pelled to  look  at  "  the  old  African  blasphemer  " 
as  he  called  himself,  with  much  of  sympathy. 
That  he  had  a  note  of  tolerance,  with  which  he 
is  not  usually  credited,  we  learn  from  one  of  his 
letters,  where  he  says : 

I  am  willing  to  be  a  debtor  to  the  wise  and  to  the  un- 

1  John  Newton  (1725-1807)  had  been  the  captain  of  a  slave 
ship  before  his  '  conversion.'  He  became  Curate  of  Olney 
in  1764  and  published  the  famous  Olney  Hymns  with  Cowper 
in  1779.  In  1780  Newton  became  the  popular  Incumbent  of 
St.  Mary  Woolnoth,  London. 


WILLIAM  COWPER  35 

wise,  to  doctors  and  shoemakers,  if  I  can  get  a  hint  from 
any  one  without  respect  of  parties.  When  a  house  is 
on  fire  Churchmen  and  Dissenters,  Methodists  and 
Papists,  Moravians  and  Mystics  are  all  welcome  to  bring 
water.  At  such  times  nobody  asks,  "  Pray,  friend,  whom  do 
you  hear  ?  "  or  "  What  do  you  think  of  the  five  points  ?  " 

Even  my  good  friend  Canon  Benham,  who  has 
done  so  much  to  sustain  the  honourable  fame  of 
Cowper,  and  who  would  have  been  here  to-day 
but  for  a  long-standing  engagement,  is  scarcely 
fair  to  Newton.1  It  is  not  true,  as  has  been 
suggested,  that  Cowper  always  changed  his 
manner  into  one  of  painful  sobriety  when  he  wrote 
to  Newton.  One  of  his  most  humorous  letters — 
a  rhyming  epistle — was  addressed  to  that  divine. 

I  have  writ  (he  says)  in  a  rhyming  fit,  what  will  make 
you  dance,  and  as  you  advance,  will  keep  you  still,  though 
against  your  will,  dancing  away,  alert  and  gay,  till  you 
come  to  an  end  of  what  I  have  penned  ;  which  you  may  do 
ere  Madam  and  you  are  quite  worn  out  with  jigging  about, 
I  take  my  leave,  and  here  you  receive  a  bow  profound, 
down  to  the  ground,  from  your  humble  me,  W.  C. 

1  See  the  Globe  Cowper ,  with  an  Introduction  by  the  Rev. 
William  Benham,  the  Rector  of  St.  Edmund's,  Lombard  Street. 
Canon  Benham  has  written  many  books,  but  he  has  done 
no  better  piece  of  work  than  this  fine  Introduction  which  first 
appeared  in  1870. 


36  TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

Now,  I  quote  this  very  familiar  passage  from 
the  correspondence  to  remind  you  that  Cowper 
could  only  have  written  it  to  a  man  possessed 
of  considerable  healthy  geniality. 

At  any  rate,  alike  as  a  divine  and  as  the  author 
of  the  Olney  Hymns,  Newton  holds  an  important 
place  in  the  history  of  theology,  and  Olney  has 
a  right  to  be  proud  of  him.  An  even  more 
important  place  is  held  by  Thomas  Scott,1  and 
it  seems  to  me  quite  a  wonderful  thing  that  Olney 
should  sometimes  have  held  at  one  and  the  same 
moment  three  such  remarkable  men  as  Cowper, 
Newton,  and  Scott. 

In  my  boyhood  Scott's  name  was  a  household 
word,  and  many  a  time  have  I  thumbed  the 
volumes  of  his  Commentaries,  those  Commentaries 
which  Sir  James  Stephen  declared  to  be  "  the 
greatest  theological  performance  of  our  age  and 
country."  Of  Scott  Cardinal  Newman  in  his 
A-pologia  said,  it  will  be  remembered,  that  "  to 

1  Thomas  Scott  (1747-1821).  His  commentaries  first 
appeared  in  weekly  parts  between  1788  and  1792,  and  were 
first  issued  in  ten  volumes,  1823-25.  He  was  Rector  of  Astin 
Sandford  in  Buckinghamshire  from  1801  until  his  death.  His 
Life  was  published  by  his  son,  the  Rev.  John  Scott,  in  1822. 


WILLIAM  COWPER  37 

him,  humanly  speaking,  I  almost  owe  my  soul." 
Even  here  our  literary  associations  with  Olney 
and  its  neighbourhood  are  not  ended,  for,  it  was 
within  five  miles  of  this  town — at  Easton  Maudit 
— that  Bishop  Percy1  lived  and  prepared  those 
Reliques  which  have  inspired  a  century  of  ballad 
literature.  Here  the  future  Bishop  of  Dromore 
was  visited  by  Dr.  Johnson  and  others.  What 
a  pity  that  with  only  five  miles  separating  them 
Cowper  and  Johnson  should  never  have  met ! 
Would  Cowper  have  reconsidered  the  wish  made 
when  he  read  Johnson's  biography  of  Milton  in 
the  Lives  of  the  Poets  :  "  Oh  !  I  could  thresh  his 
old  jacket  till  I  made  his  pension  jingle  in  his 
pocket !  "  ? 

But  it  is  with  Cowper  only  that  we  have  here 
to  do,  and  when  we  are  talking  of  Cowper  the 
difficulty  is  solely  one  of  compression.  So  much 
has  been  written  about  him  and  his  work.  The 
Lives  of  him  form  of  themselves  a  most  sub- 
stantial library.  He  has  been  made  the  subject 
of  what  is  surely  the  very  worst  biography  in  the 

1  Thomas  Percy  (1729-1811)  became  Vicar  of  Easton 
Maudit,  Northamptonshire,  in  1753.  Johnson  visited  him  here 
in  1764.  In  1765  Percy  published  his  Reliques  of  Ancient 
English  Poetry.  He  became  Bishop  of  Dromere  in  1782. 


38   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

language  and  of  one  that  is  among  the  very  best. 
The  well-meaning  Hayley  l  wrote  the  one,  in 
which  the  word  "  tenderness  "  appears  at  least 
twice  on  every  page,  and  Southey  2  the  other. 
Not  less  fortunate  has  the  poet  been  in  his  critics. 
Walter  Bagehot,  James  Russell  Lowell,  Mrs. 
Oliphant,  George  Eliot3 — these  are  but  a  few  of 

1  William  Hayley  (1745-1820)  was  counted  a  great  poet  in 
his  day  and  placed  in  the  same  rank  with  Dryden  and  Pope. 
He  wrote  Triumphs  of  Temper  1781,  Triumphs  of  Music  .1804, 
and  many  other  works  ;    but  he  is  of  interest  here  by  virtue 
of  his  Life  and  Letters  of  William   Cowper,  Esq.,  with 
Remarks  on  Epistolary  Writers,  published  in  1803. 

2  Robert    Southey   (1774-1843),  whose  Life  and  Works  of 
Cowper    is   in    fifteen    volumes,    which  were   published    by 
Baldwin  &  Cradock  between  the  years  1835  and  1837.    The 
attractive  form  in  which  the  works  are  presented,  the  many 
fine  steel  engravings,  and  the  excellent  type  make  this  still  the 
only  way  for  book  lovers  to  approach  Cowper.     Southey  had 
to  suffer  the  competition  of  the  Rev.  T.  S.  Grimshawe,  who 
produced,  through  Saunders  &  Otley,  about  the  same  time  a 
reprint  of  Hayley's  biography  with  much  of  Cowper's  corre- 
spondence  that  is   not  in   Southey's   volumes.      The  whole 
correspondence    was  collected  by  Mr.  Thomas  Wright,  and 
published  by  Hodder  &  Stoughton  in  1904. 

3  Walter  Bagehot  (1826-1877)  in  his  Literary  Studies.    James 
Russell    Lowell   (1819-1891)  in    his  Essays.     Mrs.    Oliphant 
1828-1897)  in  her  Literary  History  of  England;  and    George 
Eliot  (1819-1880)  in    her    Essays    (Worldliness    and    Other 
Worldliness). 


WILLIAM  COWPER  39 

the  names  that  occur  to  me  as  having  said  some- 
thing wise  and  to  the  point  concerning  the  Poet 
of  Olney. 

I  somehow  feel  that  it  is  safer  for  me  to  refer 
to  the  Poet  of  Olney  than  to  speak  of  William 
Cowper,  because  I  am  not  quite  sure  how  you 
would  wish  me  to  pronounce  his  name.  Cooper, 
he  himself  pronounced  it,  as  his  family  are  in 
the  habit  of  doing.  The  present  Lord  Cowper 
is  known  to  all  the  world  as  Lord  Cooper.  The 
derivation  of  the  name  and  the  family  coat-of- 
arms  justify  that  pronunciation,  and  it  might 
be  said  that  a  man  was,  and  is,  entitled  to  settle 
the  question  of  the  pronunciation  of  his  own 
name.  And  yet  I  plead  for  what  I  am  quite 
willing  to  allow  is  the  incorrect  pronunciation. 
All  pronunciation,  even  of  the  simplest  words, 
is  settled  finally  by  a  consensus  of  custom. 
Throughout  the  English-speaking  world  the 
name  is  now  constantly  pronounced  Cowper,  as 
if  that  most  useful  and  ornamental  animal  the 
cow  had  given  it  its  origin.  Well-read  Scotland 
is  peculiarly  unanimous  in  the  custom,  and  well- 
read  America  follows  suit.  William  Shakspere, 
I  doubt  not,  called  himself  Shaxspere,  and  we 


4o   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

decline  to  imitate  him,  and  so  probably  many 
of  us  will  with  a  light  heart  go  on  speaking  of 
William  Cowper  to  the  end  of  the  chapter.  At 
any  rate  Shakspere  and  Cowper,  divergent  as 
were  their  lives  and  their  work — and  one  readily 
recognizes  the  incomparably  greater  position  of 
the  former — had  alike  a  keen  sense  of  humour, 
rare  among  poets  it  would  seem,  and  hugely 
would  they  both  have  enjoyed  such  a  controversy 
as  this. 

This  suggestion  of  the  humour  of  Cowper 
brings  me  to  my  main  point.  Humour  is  so 
essentially  a  note  of  sanity,  and  it  is  the  sanity  of 
Cowper  that  I  desire  to  emphasize  here.  We 
have  heard  too  much  of  the  insanity  of  Cowper} 
of  the  "  maniac's  tongue"  to  which  Mrs.  Browning 
referred,  of  the  "  maniacal  Calvinist  "  of  whom 
Byron  wrote  somewhat  scornfully.  Only  a  day 
or  two  ago  I  read  in  a  high-class  journal  that 
"  one  fears  that  Cowper's  despondency  and 
madness  are  better  known  to-day  than  his  poetry." 
That  is  not  to  know  the  secret  of  Cowper.  It  is 
true  that  there  were  periods  of  maniacal  de- 
pression, and  these  were  not  always  religious 
ones.  Now,  it  was  from  sheer  nervousness  at 


WILLIAM  COWPER  41 

the  prospect  of  meeting  his  fellows,  now  it  was 
from  a  too  logical  acceptance  of  the  doctrine  of 
eternal  punishment.  Had  it  not  been  these,  it 
would  have  been  something  else.  It  might  have 
been  politics,  or  a  hundred  things  that  now  and 
again  give  a  twist  to  the  mind  of  the  wisest. 
With  Cowper  it  was  generally  religion.  I  am  not 
here  to  promote  a  paradox.  I  accept  the  only  too 
well-known  story  of  Cowper's  many  visitations, 
but,  looking  back  a  century,  for  the  purpose  of 
asking  what  was  Cowper's  contribution  to  the 
world's  happiness  and  why  we  meet  to  speak  of  our 
love  for  him  to-day,  I  insist  that  these  visitations 
are  not  essential  to  our  memory  of  him  as  a  great 
figure  in  our  literature — the  maker  of  an  epoch. 

Cowper  lived  for  some  seventy  years — sixty- 
nine,  to  be  exact.  Of  these  years  there  was  a 
period  longer  than  the  full  term  of  Byron's  life, 
of  Shelley's  or  of  Keats's,  of  perfect  sanity,  and 
it  was  in  this  period  that  he  gave  us  what  is  one 
of  the  sanest  achievements  in  our  literature, 
view  it  as  we  may. 

Let  us  look  backwards  over  the  century — 
a  century  which  has  seen  many  changes  of 
which  Cowper  had  scarcely  any  vision — the 


42   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

wonders  of  machinery  and  of  electricity,  of  com- 
mercial enterprise,  of  the  newspaper  press,  of 
book  production.  The  galloping  postboy  is  the 
most  persistent  figure  in  Cowper's  landscape.  He 
has  been  replaced  by  the  motor  car.  Nations 
have  arisen  and  fallen  ;  a  thousand  writers  have 
become  popular  and  have  ceased  to  be  re- 
membered. Other  writers  have  sprung  up  who 
have  made  themselves  immortal.  Burns  and 
Byron,  Coleridge  and  Wordsworth,  Scott  and 
Shelley  among  the  poets. 

We  ask  ourselves,  then,  what  distinctly  differen- 
tiates Cowper's  life  from  that  of  his  brothers  in 
poetry,  and  I  reply — his  sanity.  He  did  not 
indulge  in  vulgar  amours,  as  did  Burns  and  Byron  ; 
he  did  not  ruin  his  moral  fibre  by  opium,  as  did 
Coleridge  ;  he  did  not  shock  his  best  friends  by 
an  over-weening  egotism,  as  did  Wordsworth 
he  did  not  spoil  his  life  by  reckless  financial 
complications,  as  did  Scott ;  or  by  too  great  an 
enthusiasm  to  beat  down  the  world's  conventions, 
as  did  Shelley.  I  do  not  here  condemn  any  one 
or  other  of  these  later  poets.  Their  lives  cannot 
be  summed  up  in  the  mistakes  they  made.  I 
only  urge  that,  as  it  is  not  good  to  be  at  warfare 


WILLIAM  COWPER  43 

with  your  fellows,  to  be  burdened  with  debts 
that  you  have  to  kill  yourself  to  pay,  to  alienate 
your  friends  by  distressing  mannerisms,  to  cease 
to  be  on  speaking  terms  with  your  family — there- 
fore Cowper,  who  avoided  these  things,  and,  out 
of  threescore  years  and  more  allotted  to  him, 
lived  for  some  forty  or  fifty  years  at  least  a  quiet, 
idyllic  life,  surrounded  by  loyal  and  loving  friends, 
had  chosen  the  saner  and  safer  path.  That, 
it  may  be  granted,  was  very  much  a  matter  of 
temperament,  and  for  it  one  does  not  need  to 
praise  him.  The  appeal  to  us  of  Robert  Burns 
to  gently  scan  our  brother  man  will  necessarily 
find  a  ready  acceptance  to-day,  and  a  plea  on 
behalf  of  kindly  toleration  for  any  great  writer 
who  has  inspired  his  fellows  is  natural  and  honour- 
able. But  Cowper  does  not  require  any  such 
kindly  toleration.  His  temperament  led  him  to 
a  placid  life,  where  there  were  few  temptations, 
and  that  life  with  its  quiet  walks,  its  occasional 
drives,  its  simple  recreations,  has  stood  for  a 
whole  century  as  our  English  ideal.  It  is  what, 
amid  the  strain  of  the  severest  commercialism 
in  our  great  cities,  we  look  forward  to  for  our 
declining  years  as  a  haven  on  this  side  of  the  grave. 


44   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

But  I  have  undertaken  to  plead  for  Cowper's 
sanity.  I  desire,  therefore,  to  beg  you  to  look  not 
at  this  or  that  episode  in  his  life,  when,  as  we  know, 
Cowper  was  in  the  clutches  of  evil  spirits,  but  at 
his  life  as  a  whole — a  life  of  serene  contentment 
in  the  company  of  his  friends,  his  hares  Puss, 
Tiny  and  Bess,  his  "  eight  pair  of  tame  pigeons," 
his  correspondents ;  and  then  I  ask  you  to  turn 
to  his  work,  and  to  note  the  essential  sanity  of 
that  work  also. 

First  there  is  his  poetry.  When  after  the 
Bastille  had  fallen  Charles  James  Fox  quoted  in 
one  of  his  speeches  Cowper's  lines — written  long 
years  before — praying  that  that  event  might 
occur,  he  paid  an  unconscious  tribute  to  the 
sanity  of  Cowper's  genius.1  Few  poets  who 
have  let  their  convi&tions  and  aspirations  find 
expression  in  verse  have  come  so  near  the  mark. 

Wordsworth's  verse — that  which  was  written 
at  the  same  age — is  studded  with  prophecy  of 
evils  that  never  occurred.  It  was  not  because 
of  any  supermundane  intelligence,  such  as  latter- 
day  poets  have  been  pleased  to  affect  and  latter- 

1  It  has  no  bearing  upon  the  subject  that  the  horrors  of 
the  Bastille  at  the  time  of  its  fall  were  greatly  exaggerated. 


WILLIAM  COWPER  45 

day  critics  to  assume  for  them,  that  Cowper 
wrote  in  anticipation  of  the  fall  of  the  Bastille 
in  those  thrilling  lines,  but  because  his  exceedingly 
sane  outlook  upon  the  world  showed  him  that 
France  was  riding  fast  towards  revolution. 

We  have  been  told  that  Cowper's  poetry 
lacked  the  true  note  of  passion,  that  there  was  an 
absence  of  the  "  lyric  cry."  I  protest  that  I  find 
the  note  of  passion  in  the  "  Lines  on  the  Receipt 
of  my  Mother's  Picture,"  in  his  two  sets  of  verses 
to  Mrs.  Unwin,  in  his  sonnet  to  Wilberforce 
not  less  marked  than  I  find  it  in  other  great  poets. 
I  find  in  The  Task  and  elsewhere  in  Cowper's  works 
a  note  of  enthusiasm  for  human  brotherhood,  for 
man's  responsibility  for  man,  for  universal  kin- 
ship, that  had  scarcely  any  place  in  literature 
before  he  wrote  quietly  here  at  Olney  thoughts 
wiser  and  saner  than  he  knew.  To-day  we  call 
ourselves  by  many  names,  Conservatives  or 
Liberals,  Radicals,  or  Socialists ;  we  differ  widely 
as  to  ways  and  means ;  but  we  are  all  practically 
agreed  about  one  thing — that  the  art  of  politics 
is  the  art  of  making  the  world  happier.  Each 
politician  who  has  any  aspirations  beyond  mere 
ambition  desires  to  leave  the  world  a  little  better 


46  TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

than  he  found  it.  This  is  a  commonplace  of 
to-day.  It  was  not  a  commonplace  of  Cowper's 
day.  Even  the  great-hearted,  lovable  Dr.  John- 
son was  only  concerned  with  the  passing  act  of 
kindliness  to  his  fellows ;  patriotism  he  declared 
to  be  the  last  refuge  of  a  scoundrel ;  collective 
aspiration  was  mere  charlatanry  in  his  eyes,  and 
when  some  one  said  that  he  had  lost  his  appetite 
because  of  a  British  defeat,  Johnson  thought  him 
an  impostor,  in  which  Johnson  was  probably 
right.  There  have  been  plenty  of  so-called  patriots 
who  were  scoundrels,  there  has  been  plenty  of 
affectation  of  sentiment  which  is  little  better 
than  charlatanry,  but  we  do  not  consider  when 
we  weigh  the  influence  of  men  whether  Rous- 
seau was  morally  far  inferior  to  Johnson.  We 
know  that  he  was.  But  Rousseau,  poor  an  instru- 
ment as  he  may  have  been,  helped  to  break  many  a 
chain,  to  relieve  many  a  weary  heart,  to  bring  to 
whole  peoples  a  new  era  in  which  the  horrors  of 
the  past  became  as  a  nightmare,  and  in  which 
ideals  were  destined  to  reign  for  ever.  Cowper, 
an  incomparably  better  man  than  Rousseau, 
helped  to  permeate  England  with  that  collective 
sentiment,  which,  while  it  does  not  excuse  us 


WILLIAM  COWPER  47 

for  neglecting  our  neighbour,  is  a  good  thing  for 
preserving  for  nations  a  healthy  natural  life,  a 
more  and  more  difficult  task  with  the  grow- 
ing complications  of  commercialism.  Cowper 
here,  as  I  say,  unconsciously  performed  his 
greatest  service  to  humanity  ;  and  it  was  per- 
formed, be  it  remembered,  at  Olney.  It  has  been 
truly  said  that  in  Cowper  : — 

The  poetry  of  human  wrong  begins,  that  long,  long 
cry  against  oppression  and  evil  done  by  man  to  man. 
against  the  political,  moral,  or  priestly  tyrant,  which 
rings  louder  and  louder  through  Burns,  Coleridge,  Shel- 
ley, and  Byron,  ever  impassioned,  ever  longing,  ever 
prophetic — never,  in  the  darkest  time,  quite  despairing.1 

And  Cowper  achieved  this  without  losing 
sight  for  one  moment  of  the  essential  necessity 
for  personal  worth  : 

Spend  all  thy  powers 
Of  rant  and  rhapsody  in  Virtue's  praise, 
Be  most  sublimely  good,  verbosely  grand, 

and  it  profiteth  nothing,  he  said  in  effect. 

That  was  not  his  only  service  as  a  citizen.  He 
struck  the  note  of  honest  patriotism  as  it  had  not 

1  Theology   in   the  English   Poets,  by   Stop  ford  A.  Brooke. 


48   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

been  struck  before  since  Milton,  by  the  familiar 
lines  commencing  : 

England,  with  all  thy  faults,  I  love  thee  still, 
My  country  ! 

As  also  in  that  stirring  ballad  "  On  the  Loss  of 
the  Royal  George  :  " 

Her  timbers  yet  are  sound, 

And  she  may  float  again, 
Full  charged  with  England's  thunder, 

And  plough  the  distant  main. 

There  are  two  other  great  claims  that  might 
here  be  made  for  Cowper  did  time  allow,  that  he 
anticipated  Wordsworth  alike  as  a  lover  of  nature, 
as  one  who  had  more  than  a  superficial  affection 
for  it — the  superficial  affection  of  Thomson  and 
Gray — and  that  he  anticipated  Wordsworth 
also  as  a  lover  of  animal  life.  Cowper's  love  of 
nature  was  the  less  effective  than  Wordsworth's 
only,  surely,  in  that  he  had  not  had  Wordsworth's 
advantage  of  living  amid  impressive  scenery. 
His  love  of  animal  life  was  far  less  platonic  than 
Wordsworth's.  To  his  hares  and  his  pigeons 
and  all  dumb  creatures  he  was  genuinely  devoted. 
Perhaps  it  was  because  he  had  in  him  the  blood 


WILLIAM  COWPER  49 

of  kings  —  for,  curiously  enough,  it  is  no  more 
difficult  to  trace  the  genealogical  tree  of  both 
Cowper  and  Byron  down  to  William  the  Con- 
queror than  it  is  to  trace  the  genealogical  tree 
of  Queen  Victoria  —  it  was  perhaps,  I  say,  this 
descent  from  kings  which  led  him  to  be  more 
tolerant  of  "  sport  "  than  was  Wordsworth.  At 
any  rate,  Cowper's  vigorous  description  of  being 
in  at  the  death  of  a  fox  may  be  contrasted  with 
Wordsworth's  "  Heart  Leap  Well,"  and  you 
will  prefer  Cowper  or  Wordsworth,  as  your 
tastes  are  for  or  against  our  old-fashioned  English 
sports.  But  even  then,  as  often,  Cowper  in  his 
poetry  was  less  tolerant  than  in  his  prose,  for 
he  writes  in  The  Task  of  : 

detested  sport 
That  owes  its  pleasures  to  another's  pain, 

We  may  note  in  all  this  the  almost  entire 
lack  of  indebtedness  in  Cowper  to  his  prede- 
cessors. One  of  his  most  famous  phrases, 
indeed,  that  on  "  the  cup  that  cheers,  but  not 
inebriates,"  he  borrowed  from  Berkeley  ;  but 
his  borrowings  were  few,  far  fewer  than  those  of 
any  other  great  poet,  whereas  mine  would  be  a 
long  essay  were  I  to  produce  by  the  medium  of 


I.M. 


50  TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

parallel  columns  all  that  other  poets  have  borrowed 
from  him. 

Lastly,  among  Cowper's  many  excellencies  as  a 
poet  let  me  note  his  humour.  His  pathos,  his 
humanity — many  fine  qualities  he  has  in  common 
with  others ;  but  what  shall  we  say  of  his  humour? 
If  the  ubiquitous  Scot  were  present,  so  far  from 
his  native  heath — and  I  daresay  we  have  one  or 
two  with  us — he  might  claim  that  humour  was 
also  the  prerogative  of  Robert  Burns.  He  might 
claim,  also,  that  certain  other  great  characteristics 
of  Cowper  were  to  be  found  almost  simultane- 
ously in  Burns.  There  is  virtue  in  the  almost. 
Cowper  was  born  in  1731,  Burns  in  1759.  At 
any  rate  humour  has  been  a  rare  product 
among  the  greater  English  poets.  It  was  entirely 
absent  in  Wordsworth,  in  Shelley,  in  Keats. 
Byron  possessed  a  gift  of  satire  and  wit,  but  no 
humour,  Tennyson  only  a  suspicion  of  it  in  "  The 
Northern  Farmer."  From  Cowper  to  Browning, 
who  also  had  it  at  times,  there  has  been  little 
humour  in  the  greatest  English  poetry,  although 
plenty  of  it  in  the  lesser  poets — Hood  and  the 
rest.  But  there  was  in  Cowper  a  great  sense 
of  humour,  as  there  was  also  plenty;  of  what 


WILLIAM  COWPER  51 

Hazlitt,  almost  censoriously,  calls  "  elegant 
trifling."  Not  only  in  the  imperishable  "  John 
Gilpin,"  but  in  the  "  Case  Between  Nose  and 
Eyes,"  "  The  Nightingale  and  Glow-worm,"  and 
other  pieces  you  have  examples  of  humorous  verse 
which  will  live  as  long  as  our  language  endures. 

Cowper's  claims  as  a  poet,  then,  may  be  empha- 
sized under  four  heads  : — 

I.  His  enthusiasm  for  humanity. 
II.  His  love  of  nature. 

III.  His  love  of  animal  life. 

IV.  His  humour. 

And  in  three  of  these,  let  it  be  said  emphatic- 
ally, he  stands  out  as  the  creator  of  a  new  era. 

There  is  another  claim  I  make  for  him,  and 
with  this  I  close — his  position  as  a  master  of 
prose,  as  well  as  of  poetry.  Cowper  was  the 
greatest  letter-writer  in  a  language  which  has 
produced  many  great  letter-writers — Walpole, 
Gray,  Byron,  Scott,  FitzGerald,  and  a  long  list. 
But  nearly  all  these  men  were  men  of  affairs,  of 
action.  Given  a  good  literary  style  they  could 
hardly  have  been  other  than  interesting,  they 
had  so  much  to  say  that  they  gained  from 
external  sources.  Even  FitzGerald — the  one 


52   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

recluse — had  all  the  treasures  of  literature  con- 
stantly passing  into  his  study.  Cowper  had  but 
eighteen  books  altogether  during  many  of  his 
years  in  Olney,  and  some  of  us  who  have  lent  our 
volumes  in  the  past  and  are  still  sighing  over 
gaps  in  our  shelves  find  consolation  in  the  fact  that 
six  of  Cowper's  books  had  been  returned  to  him 
after  a  friend  had  borrowed  for  twenty  years  or  so. 
Now,  it  is  comparatively  easy  to  write  good  letters 
with  a  library  around  you  ;  it  is  marvellous  that 
Cowper  could  have  done  this  with  so  little  material, 
and  his  letters  are,  from  this  point  of  view,  the  best 
of  all — "  divine  chit-chat  "  Coleridge  called  them. 
His  simple  style  captivates  us.  And  here  let  me 
say — keeping  to  my  text — that  it  is  the  sanest 
of  styles,  a  style  with  no  redundancies,  no  rhetoric, 
no  straining  after  effect.  The  outlook  on  life 
is  sane — what  could  be  finer  than  the  chase  for 
the  lost  hare,  or  the  call  of  the  Parliamentary 
candidate,  or  the  flogging  of  the  thief  ? — and  the 
outlook  on  literature  is  particularly  sane. 

Cowper  was  well-nigh  the  only  true  poet  in 
the  first  rank  in  English  literature  who  was  at 
the  same  time  a  true  critic.  Literary  history 
affords  a  singular  revelation  of  the  wild  and  inco- 


WILLIAM  COWPER  53 

herent  judgments  of  their  fellows  on  the  part 
of  the  poets.  For  praise  or  blame,  there  are  few 
literary  judgments  of  Byron,  of  Shelley,  of  Words- 
worth that  will  stand.  Coleridge  was  a  critic 
first,  and  his  poetry,  though  good,  is  small  in 
quantity,  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  Matthew 
Arnold.  Tennyson  discreetly  kept  away  from 
prose,  and  his  letters,  be  it  remembered,  lack 
distinction  as  do  most  letters  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  If,  however,  as  we  are  really  to  believe, 
he  it  was  who  really  made  the  first  edition 
of  Palgrave's  Golden  Treasury  of  Lyric  Poetry, 
he  came  near  to  Cowper  in  his  sanity  of 
judgment,  and  one  delights  to  think  that  in 
that  precious  volume  Cowper  ranks  third — that 
is,  after  Shakspere  and  Wordsworth  —  in  the 
number  of  selections  that  are  there  given,  and 
rightly  given,  as  imperishable  masterpieces  of 
English  poetry.  Tennyson,  also,  was  at  one 
with  Cowper  in  declaring  that  an  appreciation 
of  Lycidas  was  a  touchstone  of  taste  for  poetry. 
To  Tennyson,  as  to  Cowper,  Milton  was  the 
one  great  English  poet  after  Shakspere ;  and 
here,  also,  we  revere  the  saneness  of  view. 
More  sane  too,  was  Cowper  than  any  of  the 


54  TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

modern  critics,  in  that  he  did  not  believe  that 
mere  technique  was  the  standpoint  from  which 
all  poetry  must  ultimately  be  judged. 

"  Give  me,"  he  says,  "  a  manly  rough  line  with  a  deal 
of  meaning  in  it,  rather  than  a  whole  poem  full  of  musical 
periods,  that  have  nothing  in  them,  only  smoothness  to 
recommend  them  !  " 

And  thus  he  justified  Robert  Browning  and  many 
another  singer. 

Let  us  then  dismiss  from  our  minds  the  one- 
sided picture  of  Cowper  as  a  gloomy  fanatic,  who 
was  always  asking  himself  in  Carlylian  phrase, 
"  Am  I  saved  ?  Am  I  damned  ?  "  Let  us  re- 
member him  as  staunch  to  the  friends  of  his 
youth,  sympathetic  to  his  old  schoolfellow, 
Warren  Hastings,  when  the  world  would  make 
him  out  too  black.  Opposed  in  theory  to  tobacco, 
how  he  delighted  to  welcome  his  good  friend  Mr. 
Bull.  "  My  greenhouse,"  he  says,  "  wants  only 
the  flavour  of  your  pipe  to  make  it  perfectly 
delightful !  "  Naturally  tolerant  of  total  absti- 
nence, he  asks  one  friend  to  drink  to  the  success 
of  his  Homer,  and  thanks  another  for  a  present  of 
bottle-stands.  From  beginning  to  end,  save  in 
those  periods  of  aberration,  there  is  no  more 


WILLIAM  COWPER  55 

resemblance  to  Cowper  in  the  picture  that  certain 
narrow-minded  people  have  desired  to  portray 
than  there  is  in  these  same  people's  conception 
of  Martin  Luther.  The  real  Luther,  who  loved 
dancing  and  mirth  and  the  joy  of  living  as  much 
as  did  any  of  the  men  he  so  courageously  opposed, 
was  not  more  remote  from  a  conception  of  him 
once  current  in  this  country  than  was  the  real 
Cowper — the  frank,  genial  humorist,  who  wrote 
"  John  Gilpin,"  who  in  his  youth  "  giggled  and 
made  giggle  "  with  his  girl-cousins,  and  in  his 
maturer  years  "  laughed  and  made  laugh  "  with 
Lady  Austen  and  Lady  Hesketh. 

To  all  men  there  are  periods  of  weariness  and 
depression,  side  by  side  with  periods  of  happiness 
and  hopefulness.  Cowper,  alas  !  had  more  than 
his  share  of  the  tragedy  of  life,  but  let  us  not 
forget  that  he  had  some  of  its  joy,  and  that  joy 
is  reflected  for  us  in  a  substantial  literary  achieve- 
ment, which  has  lived,  and  influenced  the  world, 
while  his  more  tragic  experiences  may  well  be 
buried  in  oblivion.  This,  you  may  have  noted, 
is  not  a  criticism  of  Cowper,  but  an  eulogy.  I 
would  wish  to  say,  however,  that  the  criticism  of 
Cowper  by  living  writers  has  been  of  surpassing 


56  TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

excellence.  For  the  first  fifty  or  sixty  years  of 
the  century  that  we  are  recalling  Cowper  was 
the  most  popular  poet  of  our  country,  with  Burns 
and  Byron  for  rivals.  He  has  been  largely  de- 
throned by  Wordsworth  and  Shelley,  and  Tenny- 
son, not  one  of  whom  has  been  praised  too  much. 
But  if  Cowper  has  sunk  somewhat  out  of  sight  of 
late  years,  owing  to  inevitable  circumstances,  it 
is  during  these  late  years  that  he  has  secured  the 
goodwill  of  the  best  living  critics.  Would  that 
Mr.  Leslie  Stephen1 — who  wrote  his  life  in  the 
Dictionary  of  National  Biography — would  that 
Mr.  Edmund  Gosse — who  has  so  recently  published 
a  great  biography  of  Cowper's  memorable  ances- 
tor, Dr.  Donne — were,  one  or  other  of  them, 
here  to-day  ;  or  Mr.  Austin  Dobson,  who  has 
visited  Olney,  and  described  his  impressions ;  or 
Dr.  Jessopp,  who  lives  near  Cowper's  tomb  in 
East  Dereham  Church.  These  writers  are,  alas  ! 
not  with  us,  and  some  presentment  of  a  poet 
they  love  has  fallen  to  less  capable  hands. 

1  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen,  who  became  Sir  Leslie  Stephen,  K.C.B., 
in  1902,  was  born  in  1832  and  died  in  1904.  In  addition  to  the 
article  in  the  D.N.B.,  this  great  critic  has  one  on  "  Cowper  and 
Rousseau  "  in  his  Hours  in  a  Library. 


WILLIAM  COWPER  57 

But  not  the  most  brilliant  of  speeches,  not  all 
the  enthusiasm  of  all  the  critics,  can  ever  restore 
Cowper  to  his  former  immense  popularity.  We 
do  well,  however,  to  celebrate  his  centenary, 
because  it  is  good  at  certain  periods  to  remember 
our  indebtedness  to  the  great  men  who  have 
helped  us  in  literature  or  in  life.  But  that  is  not 
to  say  that  we  work  for  the  dethronement  of  later 
favourites.  "  Each  age  must  write  its  own 
books,"  says  Emerson,  and  this  is  particularly  the 
case  with  the  great  body  of  poetry.  Cowper, 
however,  will  live  to  all  time  among  students  of 
literature  by  his  longer  poems ;  he  will  live  to 
all  time  among  the  multitude  by  his  ballads  and 
certain  of  his  lyrics.  He  will,  assuredly,  live  by 
his  letters,  to  study  which  will  be  a  thousand 
times  more  helpful  to  the  young  writer  than  many 
volumes  of  Addison,  to  whom  we  were  once  ad- 
vised to  devote  our  days  and  our  nights.  Cowper 
will  live,  above  all,  as  a  profoundly  interesting  and 
beautiful  personality,  as  a  great  and  good  English- 
man— the  greatest  of  all  the  sons  of  this  his 
adopted  town. 


TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 
GEORGE  BORROW 


Ill 

TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 
GEORGE  BORROW 

An  Address  delivered  in  Norwich  on  the  Occasion  of 
the  Borrow  Centenary,  1903. 

ONE  hundred  years  ago  there  was  born  some 
two  miles  from  the  pleasant  little  town  of  East 
Dereham,  in  this  county,  a  child  who  was  chris- 
tened George  Henry  Borrow.  That  is  why  we 
are  assembled  here  this  evening.  I  count  it 
one  of  the  most  interesting  coincidences  in 
literary  history  that  only  three  years  earlier  there 
should  have  left  the  world  in  the  same  little 
town — a  town  only  known  perhaps  to  those  of 
us  who  are  Norfolk  men — a  poet  who  has  always 
seemed  to  me  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  glories 
of  our  literature  :  I  mean  William  Cowper. 
Cowper  died  in  April,  1800,  and  Borrow  was  born 
in  July,  1803,  in  this  same  town  of  East  Dereham  : 
and  there  very  much  it  might  be  thought,  any 
point  of  likeness  or  of  contrast  must  surely  end. 


62   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

Cowper  and  Borrow  do,  indeed,  come  into  some 
trivial  kind  of  kinship  at  one  or  two  points.    In 
reading  Cowper's  beautiful  letters   I  have  come 
across  two  addressed  by  him  to  one  Richard  Phil- 
lips, a  bookseller  of  that  day,  who  had  been  in 
prison  for  publishing  some  of  Thomas  Paine's  works. 
Cowper  had  been  asked  by  Phillips  to  write  a 
sympathetic  poem  denunciatory  of  the  political 
and  religious  tyranny  that  had  sent  Phillips  to 
jail.     Cowper  had  at  first  agreed,  but  was  after- 
wards advised  not  to  have  anything  more  to  do 
with  Phillips.      Judging  by  the  after  career  of 
Phillips,    Cowper   did  wisely;    for   Phillips  was 
not  a  good  man,  although  twenty  years  later  he 
had  become  a  sheriff  of  London  and  was  knighted. 
As    Sir    Richard    Phillips    he    was     visited     by 
George    Borrow,   then   a    youth    at    the    begin- 
ning of  his  career.     Borrow  came  to  Phillips  armed 
with  an  introduction   from  William  Taylor   of 
Norwich,  and  his  reception  is  most  dramatically 
recorded   in    the    pages    of   Lavengro.     This    is, 
however,  to  anticipate.      Then  there  is  a  poem 
by  Cowper  to  Sir  John  Fenn l  the  antiquary,  the 

1  Sir  John  Fenn  (1739-1794),  the  antiquary,  obtained  the 
originals  of  the  Paston  Letters  from  Thomas  Worth,  a  chemist 


GEORGE  BORROW  63 

first  editor  of  the  famous  Paston  Letters.  In  it 
there  is  a  reference  to  Fenn's  spouse,  who, 
under  the  pseudonym  of  "  Mrs.  Teachwell,"  wrote 
many  books  for  children  in  her  day.  Now  Bor- 
row could  remember  this  lady — Dame  Eleanor 
Fenn — when  he  was  a  boy.  He  recalled  the  "  Lady 
Bountiful  leaning  on  her  gold-headed  cane, 
while  the  sleek  old  footman  followed  at  a  respect- 
ful distance  behind."  Lady  Fenn  was  forty-six 
years  old  when  Cowper  referred  to  her.  She 
was  sixty-six  when  the  boy  Borrow  saw  her  in 
Dereham  streets.  At  no  other  points  do  these 
great  East  Dereham  writers  come  upon  com- 
mon ground  :  Cowper  during  the  greater  part 
of  his  life  was  a  recluse.  He  practically  fled 
from  the  world.  In  reading  the  many  letters 

of  Diss.  The  following  lines  were  first  printed  in  Cowper's 
Collected  Poems,  by  Mr.  J.  C.  Bailey  in  his  admirable  edition  of 
1906,  published  by  the  Methuens  : — 

Two  omens  seem  propitious  to  my  fame, 
Your  spouse  embalms  my  verse,  and  you  my  name  ; 
A  name,  which,  all  self-flattery  far  apart 
Belongs  to  one  who  venerates  in  his  heart 
The  wise  and  good,  and  therefore  of  the  few 
Known  by  these  titles,  sir,  both  yours  and  you. 
They  were  written  to  please  his  cousin  John  Johnson  who 
was  to  oblige  Fenn  by  giving  him  an  autograph  of  Cowper's. 


64  TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

he  wrote — and  they  are  among  the  best  letters 
in  the  English  language — one  is  struck  by  the 
small  number  of  his  correspondents.  He  had 
few  acquaintances  and  still  fewer  friends.  He 
had  never  seen  a  hill  until  he  was  sixty,  and 
then  it  was  only  the  modest  hills  of  Sussex  that 
seemed  to  him  so  supremely  glorious.  He  was 
never  on  the  Continent.  For  half  a  lifetime  he 
did  not  move  out  of  one  county,  the  least  pic- 
turesque part  of  Buckinghamshire,  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Olney  and  of  Weston.  There  he 
wrote  the  poems  that  have  been  a  delight  to 
several  generations,  poems  which  although  they 
may  have  gone  out  of  fashion  with  many  are  still 
very  dear  to  some  among  us ;  and  there,  as  I 
have  said,  he  wrote  the  incomparable  letters 
that  have  an  equally  permanent  place  in  literature. 
You  could  not  conceive  a  more  extraordinary 
contrast  than  the  life  of  this  other  writer  associated 
with  East  Dereham,  whom  we  have  met  to 
celebrate  this  evening.  George  Borrow  was  the 
son  of  a  soldier,  who  had  risen  from  the  ranks, 
and  of  a  mother  who  had  been  an  actress.  Soldier 
and  actress  both  imply  to  all  of  us  a  restless, 
wandering  life.  The  soldier  was  a  Cornishman 


GEORGE  BORROW  65 

by  birth,  the  actress  was  of  French  origin,  and 
so  you  have  blended  in  this  little  Norfolk  boy — 
who  is  a  Norfolk  boy  in  spite  of  it  all — every 
kind  of  nomadic  habit,  every  kind  of  fiery,  imagin- 
ative enthusiasm,  a  temperament  not  usually 
characteristic  of  those  of  us  who  claim  East 
Anglia  as  the  land  of  our  birth  or  of  our  progenitors. 
I  wish  it  were  possible  for  me  to  reconstruct 
that  Norwich  world  into  which  young  George 
Borrow  entered  at  thirteen  years  of  age.  That 
it  was  a  Norwich  of  great  intellectual  activity 
is  indisputable.  In  the  year  of  Borrow's  birth 
John  Gurney,  who  died  six  years  later,  first 
became  a  partner  in  the  Norwich  bank.  His 
more  famous  son,  Joseph  John  Gurney — aged 
fifteen — left  the  Earlham  home  in  order  to  study 
at  Oxford.  His  sister,  the  still  more  famous 
Elizabeth  Fry,  was  now  twenty-three.  So  that 
when  Borrow,  the  thirteen  year  old  son  of  the 
veteran  soldier — who  had  already  been  in  Ire- 
land picking  up  scraps  of  Irish,  and  in  Scotland 
adding  to  his  knowledge  of  Gaelic — settled  down 
for  some  of  his  most  impressionable  years  in  Nor- 
wich, Joseph  John  Gurney  was  a  young  man  of 
twenty-eight  and  Elizabeth  Fry  was  thirty-six. 


66   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

Dr.  James  Martineau  was  eleven  years  of  age  and 
his  sister  Harriet  was  fourteen.  Another  equally 
clever  woman,  not  then  married  to  Austin,  the 
famous  jurist,  was  Sarah  Taylor,  aged  twenty- 
three.  This  is  but  to  name  a  few  of  the  crowd 
of  Norwich  worthies  of  that  day.  Would  that 
some  one  could  produce  a  picture  of  the 
literary  life  of  Norwich  of  this  time  and  of 
a  quarter  of  a  century  onward — a  period  that 
includes  the  famous  Bishop  Stanley's1  occupancy 
of  the  See  of  Norwich  and  the  visits  to  this 
city  from  all  parts  of  England  of  a  great 
number  of  famous  literary  men.  It  is  my 
pleasant  occupation  to-night  to  endeavour  to 
show  that  Borrow,  the  very  least  of  these  men 
and  women  in  public  estimation  for  a  good  portion 
of  his  life,  and  perhaps  the  least  in  popular  judg- 
ment even  since  his  death,  was  really  the  greatest, 
was  really  the  man  of  all  others  to  whom  this 
beautiful  city  should  do  honour  if  it  asks  for  a 
name  out  of  its  nineteenth  century  history  to 
crown  with  local  recognition. 

1  Edward  Stanley  (1779-1849),  the  father  of  Arthur  Penrhyn 
Stanley  (1815-1881),  Dean  of  Westminster,  was  Bishop  of 
Norwich  from  1837  to  1849. 


GEORGE  BORROW  67 

For  whatever  homage  may  have  fallen  to  Borrow 
during  the  half-century  or  more  since  his  name 
first  came  upon  many  tongues  Norwich,  it  must 
be  admitted,  has  given  very  little  of  it.  No  one 
associated  with  your  city,  I  repeat,  but  has  heard 
of  the  Gurneys  and  the  Martineaus,  of  the  Stan- 
leys and  the  Austins,  whose  life  stories  have 
made  so  large  a  part  of  your  literary  and  intellec- 
tual history  during  this  very  period.  But  I 
turn  in  vain  to  a  number  of  books  that  I 
have  in  my  library  for  any  information  con- 
cerning one  who  is  indisputably  the  greatest 
among  the  intellectual  children  of  Norwich.  I 
turn  to  Mr.  Prothero's  Life  of  Dean  Stanley — 
not  one  word  about  Borrow ;  to  that  pleasant 
Memoir  of  Sarah  Austin  and  her  mother,  Mrs. 
Taylor,called  Three  Generations  of  a  Norfolk  Family 
— again  not  one  word.  I  turn  to  Mr.  Braith- 
waite's  biography  of  Joseph  John  Gurney,  and  to 
Mr.  Augustus  Hare's  book  The  Gurneys  of  Earlham 
— upon  these  worthy  biographers  Borrow  made 
no  impression  whatever,  although  Joseph  John 
Gurney  was  personally  helpful  to  him  and  we 
read  in  Lavengro  of  that  pleasant  meeting  between 
the  pair  on  the  river  bank  when  Mr.  Gurney  chided 


68   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

the  boy  Borrow  or  Lavengro  for  angling.  "  From 
that  day,"  he  says,  "I  became  less  and  less  a 
practitioner  of  that  cruel  fishing."  In  Harriet 
Martineau's  Autobiography,  which  enjoyed  its 
hour  of  fame  when  it  was  published  twenty- 
six  years  ago,  there  is  a  contemptuous  reference 
to  the  disciple  of  William  Taylor,  "  this  poly- 
glot gentleman,  who  went  through  Spain  dis- 
seminating Bibles."  If  Miss  Martineau  were 
alive  now  she  would  hear  the  works  of  "  this 
polyglot  gentleman "  praised  on  every  hand, 
and  would  find  that  a  cult  had  arisen  which  to 
her  would  certainly  be  quite  incomprehensible. 
In  that  large,  dismal  book — the  Life  of  James 
Martineau,  again,  there  is  but  one  mention  of 
Dr.  Martineau's  famous  schoolfellow  whose  name 
has  been  linked  with  him  only  by  a  silly  story. 
Do  not  let  it  be  thought  that  I  am  complaining 
of  this  neglect ;  the  world  will  always  treat  its 
greatest  writers  in  precisely  this  fashion.  Borrow 
did  not  lack  for  fame  of  a  kind,  but  he  was,  as  I 
desire  to  show,  praised  in  his  lifetime  for  the 
wrong  thing,  where  he  was  praised  at  all.  Every- 
one in  the  fifties  and  sixties  read  The  Bible  in 
Spain,  as  they  read  a  hundred  other  books  of 


GEORGE  BORROW  69 

that  period,  now  forgotten.  Many  read  it 
who  were  deceived  by  its  title.  They  expected 
a  tract.  Many  read  it  as  we  to-day  read  the 
latest  novel  or  biography  of  the  hour.  Then 
a  new  book  arises  and  the  momentary  favourite 
is  forgotten.  We  think  for  a  whole  week  that 
we  are  in  contact  with  a  well-nigh  immortal 
work.  A  little  later  we  concern  ourselves  not 
at  all  whether  the  book  is  immortal  or  not. 
We  go  on  to  something  else.  The  critic  is 
as  much  to  blame  as  the  reader.  Not  one 
man  in  a  hundred  whose  profession  it  is  to  come 
between  the  author  and  the  public,  and  to  guide 
the  reader  to  the  best  in  literature,  has  the  least 
perception  of  what  is  good  literature.  It  is  easy 
when  a  writer  has  captured  the  suffrages  of  the 
crowd  for  the  critic  to  tell  the  world  that  he  is 
great.  That  happened  to  Carlyle,  to  Tennyson, 
to  many  a  popular  author  whose  earliest  books 
commanded  little  attention  :  but,  happily,  these 
writers  did  not  lose  heart.  They  kept  on  writing. 
Borrow  was  otherwise  made.  He  wrote  The 
Bible  in  Spain — a  book  of  travel  of  surprising 
merit.  It  sold  largely  on  its  title.  Mr.  Augustine 
Birrell  has  told  us  that  he  knew  a  boy  in  a  very 


70    TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

strict  household  who  devoured  the  narrative  on 
Sunday  afternoons,  the  title  being  thought  to  cover 
a  conventional  missionary  journey.  Well,  when  I 
was  a  boy  The  Bible  in  Spain  had  gone  out  of 
fashion  and  the  public  had  not  taken  up  with  the 
author's  greater  work,  Lavengro.  Borrow  was 
naturally  disappointed.  He  abused  the  critics 
and  the  public.  Perhaps  he  grew  somewhat 
soured.  He  did  not  hesitate  in  The  Romany  Rye  to 
talk  candidly  about  those  "  ill-favoured  .dogs  .  .  . 
the  newspaper  editors,"  and  he  made  the  gentle- 
man's gentleman  of  Lavengro  describe  how  he 
was  excluded  from  the  Servants'  Club  in  Park 
Lane  because  his  master  followed  a  profession  "  so 
mean  as  literature."  In  fact  as  a  reaction  from 
the  unfriendly  reception  accorded  to  the  Romany 
Rye — now  one  of  the  most  costly  of  his  books  in 
a  first  edition — he  lost  heart,  and  he  grew  to 
despise  the  whole  literary  and  writing  class. 
Hence  the  various  stories  presenting  him  in  not 
veTy~sympathetic  guise,  the  story  of  Thackeray 
being  snubbed  on  asking  Borrow  if  he  had  read 
the  Snob  Papers,  of  Miss  Agnes  Strickland  re- 
ceiving an  even  more  forcible  rebuff  when  she 
offered  to  send  him  her  Queens  of  England. 


GEORGE  BORROW  71 

"  For  God's  sake  don't  Madame  ;  I  should  not 
know  where  to  put  them  or  what  to  do  with 
them."  These  stories  are  in  Gordon  Hake's 
Memoirs  of  Eighty  Tears,  but  Mr.  Francis  Hindes 
Groome  has  shown  us  the  other  side  of  the  picture, 
and  others  also  to  whom  I  shall  refer  a  little 
later  have  done  the  same.  Perhaps  the  literary 
class  is  never  the  worse  for  a  little  plain  speaking. 
The  real  secret  of  Borrow  is  this — that  he  was  a 
man  of  action  turned  into  a  writer  by  force  of 
circumstances. 

The  life  of  Borrow,  unlike  that  of  most  famous 
men  of  letters,  has  not  been  overwritten.  His 
death  in  1881  caused  little  emotion  and  attracted 
but  small  attention  in  the  newspapers.  The 
Times,  then  as  now  so  excellent  in  its  biographies 
as  a  rule,  devoted  but  twenty  lines  to  him. 
Here  I  may  be  pardoned  for  being  auto- 
biographical. I  was  last  in  Norwich  in  the 
early  eighties.  I  had  a  wild  enthusiasm  for 
literature  so  far  as  my  taste  had  been  directed 
— that  is  to  say  I  read  every  book  I  came 
across  and  had  been  doing  so  from  my  earliest 
boyhood.  But  I  had  never  heard  of  George 
Borrow  or  of  his  works.  In  my  then  not  in- 


72   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

frequent  visits  to  Norwich  I  cannot  recall 
that  his  name  was  ever  mentioned,  and  in 
my  life  in  London,  among  men  who  were,  many 
of  them,  great  readers,  I  never  heard  of  Bor- 
row or  of  his  achievement.  He  died  in  1881, 
and  as  I  do  not  recall  hearing  his  name  at  the  time 
of  his  death  or  until  long  afterwards,  I  must 
have  missed  certain  articles  in  the  Athenaeum — 
two  of  them  admirable  "appreciations"  by  Mr. 
Watts-Dunton — and  so  my  state  of  benightedness 
was  as  I  have  described.  It  may  be  that  those 
who  are  a  year  or  two  older  than  I  am  and  those 
who  are  younger  may  find  this  extraordinary. 
You  have  always  heard  of  Borrow  and  of  his 
works,  but  I  think  I  am  entitled  to  insist  that 
when  Borrow  sank  into  his  grave,  an  old,  and  to 
many  an  eccentric  and  bitter  man,  he  had  fallen 
into  the  most  curious  oblivion  with  the  public 
that  has  ever  come  to  a  man,  I  will  not  say  of 
equal  distinction,  but  of  any  distinction  what- 
ever. Mr.  Egmont  Hake  told  the  readers  of 
the  Athenaeum  in  a  biography  that  appeared  at 
the  time  of  Borrow's  death  that  Borrow's  works 
were  "  forgotten  in  England  "  and  I  find  in 
turning  to  the  biography  of  Borrow  in  'The 


GEORGE  BORROW  73 

Norvicensian,  for  1882 — the  organ  of  the  Norwich 
Grammar  School — that  the  writer  of  this  obituary 
notice  confessed  that  there  were  none  of  Borrow's 
works  in  the  library  of  the  school  of  which 
Borrow  had  been  the  most  distinguished  pupil. 
From  that  time — in  1881 — until  1899,  a 
period  of  eighteen  years,  Borrow  had  but  little 
biographical  recognition.  A  few  introductions 
to  his  books,  sundry  encyclopaedia  articles,  and 
one  or  two  magazine  essays  made  up  the  sum 
total  of  information  concerning  the  author  of 
Lavengro  until  Dr.  Knapp'sLz/<?  appeared  in  1899. 
That  Life  has  been  severely  handled  by  some 
lovers  of  Borrow,  and  lovers  of  Borrow  are  now 
plentiful  enough.  Dr.  Knapp  had  not  the 
cunning  of  the  really  successful  biographer.  His 
book  still  remains  in  the  huge  two-volumed  form 
in  which  it  was  first  issued  four  years  ago,  and  I 
do  not  anticipate  that  it  will  ever  be  a  popular 
book.  There  is  no  literary  art  in  it.  There  is 
a  capacity  for  amassing  facts,  but  no  power  of 
co-ordinating  these  facts.  Moreover  Dr.  Knapp 
did  a  great  deal  of  mischief  by  very  over-zeal. 
He  made  too  great  a  research  into  all  the  current 
gossip  in  Norfolk  and  Suffolk  concerning  Borrow. 


74   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

If  you  were  to  make  special  research  into  the 
life  of  any  friend  or  acquaintance  of  the  past 
you  would  hear  much  foolish  gossip  and 
a  great  many  wrong  motives  imputed,  and 
possibly  you  would  not  have  an  opportunity 
of  checking  the  various  statements.  The  whole 
of  Dr.  Knapp's  book  seems  to  be  written  upon 
the  principle  of  "  I  would  if  I  could  "  say  a  good 
many  things,  and,  indeed,  every  few  months 
there  appears  in  the  Eastern  Daily  Press,  a  journal 
of  your  city  that  I  have  read  every  day  regularly 
since  boyhood,  a  letter  from  some  one  explaining 
that  the  less  inquiry  about  this  or  that  point  in 
Borrow's  career  the  better  for  Borrow.  Take,  for 
example,  last  Saturday's  issue  of  the  journal  I 
have  named,  where  I  find  the  following  from  a 
correspondent  : — 

Dr.  Knapp,  from  dictates  of  courtesy,  left  it  unre- 
vealed,  and  as  he  could  say  nothing  to  Borrow's  credit, 
passed  the  affair  over  in  silence,  and  on  this  point  all 
well-wishers  of  Borrow's  reputation  would  be  wise  to 
take  their  cue  from  this  biographer's  example. 

Now  there  is  nothing  more  damnatory  than  a 
sentence  of  this  kind.  What  does  it  amount  to  ? 
What  is  the  'it'  that  is  unrevealed  by  the 


GEORGE  BORROW  75 

courteous  Dr  Knapp  ?  It  seems  to  amount 
to  the  charge  that  Borrow  is  accused  of 
gibbeting  in  his  books  the  people  he  dislikes  ; 
this  is  what  every  great  imaginative  writer  has 
been  charged  with  to  the  perplexing  of  dull 
people.  There  are  many  characters  in  Dickens's 
novels  which  are  supposed  to  be  a  presentation  of 
near  relatives  or  friends.  These  he  ought  to  have 
treated  with  more  kindliness.  That  heroic  little 
woman,  Miss  Bronte,  gave  a  picture  of  Madame 
Heger,  who  kept  a  school  at  Brussels,  that 
conveyed,  I  doubt  not,  a  very  mistaken  present- 
ation of  the  subject  of  her  satire.  Imagina- 
tive writers  have  always  taken  these  liberties. 
When  the  worst  is  said  it  simply  amounts  to 
this,  that  Borrow  was  a  good  hater.  Dr.  John- 
son said  that  he  loved  a  good  hater,  and  he 
might  very  well  have  loved  Borrow.  Dante, 
whom  we  all  now  agree  to  idolize,  treated  people 
even  more  roughly ;  he  placed  some  of  his  ac- 
quaintances who  had  ill-used  him  in  the  very 
lowest  circles  of  hell.  May  I  express  a  hope, 
therefore,  that  this  type  of  letter  to  the  Norwich 
newspapers  about  Dr.  Knapp's  "  kindness  "  to 
Borrow's  reputation  may  cease.  If  Dr.  Knapp 


76  TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

had  printed  the  whole  of  the  facts  we  should 
know  how  to  deal  with  them  ;  but  this  is  one  of 
his  limitations  as  a  biographer.  He  has  not  in 
the  least  helped  to  a  determination  of  Sorrow's 
real  character. 

Had  Borrow  possessed  a  biographer  so  skilful 
with  her  pen  as  Mrs.  Gaskell  in  her  Life  of  Char- 
lotte Bronte,  so  keen-eyed  for  the  dramatic  note 
as  Sir  George  Trevelyan  in  his  Life  of  Macaulay, 
he  would  have  multiplied  readers  for  Lavengro. 
There  are  many  people  who  have  read  the  Bronte 
novels  from  sheer  sympathy  with  the  writers 
that  their  biographer,  Mrs.  Gaskell,  had  kindled. 
Let  us  not,  however,  be  ungrateful  to  Dr.  Knapp. 
He  has  furnished  those  of  us  who  are  sufficiently 
interested  in  the  subject  with  a  fine  collection 
of  documents.  Here  is  all  the  material  of  bio- 
graphy in  its  crude  state,  but  presenting  vividly 
enough  the  live  Borrow  to  those  who  have  the 
perception  to  read  it  with  care  and  judgment. 
Still  more  grateful  may  we  be  to  Dr.  Knapp  for 
his  edition  of  Borrow's  works,  particularly  for 
those  wonderful  episodes  in  Lavengro  which 
he  has  reproduced  from  the  original  manuscript, 
episodes  as  dramatic  as  any  other  portion  of  the 


GEORGE  BORROW  77 

text,  and  making  Dr.  Knapp's  edition  of  Lavengro 
the  only  possible  one  to  possess. 

But  to  return  to  the  main  facts  of  Borrow's 
career,  which  every  one  here  at  least  is  familiar 
with.  You  know  of  his  birth  at  East  Dereham, 
of  his  life  in  Ireland  and  in  Scotland,  of  his  school 
days  at  Norwich,  of  his  departure  from  Norwich 
to  London  on  his  father's  death,  of  his  dire 
struggles  in  the  literary  whirlpool,  and  of  his 
wanderings  in  gipsy  land.  You  know,  thanks  to 
Dr.  Knapp,  more  than  you  could  otherwise 
have  learned  of  his  life  at  St.  Petersburg,  whither 
he  had  been  sent  by  the  Bible  Society,  on  the 
recommendation  of  Mr.  Joseph  John  Gurney 
and  another  patron.  Then  he  has  himself  told 
us  in  picturesque  fashion  of  his  life  in  Portugal 
and  Spain.  After  this  we  hear  of  his  marriage 
to  Mary  Clarke,  his  residence  from  1840  to  1853 
at  Oulton,  in  Suffolk,  from  1853  to  ^60  at 
Yarmouth,  from  1860  to  1874  in  Hereford 
Square,  London,  and  finally  from  1874  to  1881 
at  Oulton,  where  he  died.  That  is  the  bare 
skeleton  of  Borrow's  life,  and  for  half  his  life,  I 
think,  we  should  be  content  with  a  skeleton. 
For  the  other  half  of  it  we  have  the  best  auto- 


78   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

biography  in  the  English  language.  An  auto- 
biography that  ranks  with  Goethe's  Truth  and 
Poetry  from  my  Life  and  Rousseau's  Confessions. 
In  four  books — in  Lavengro,  Romany  Rye,  The 
Bible  in  Spain,  and  Wild  Wales  we  have  some 
delightful  glimpses  of  an  interesting  personality, 
and  here  we  may  leave  the  personal  side  of  Borrow. 
Beyond  this  we  know  that  he  was  unquestionably 
a  devoted  son,  a  good  husband,  a  kind  father. 
The  literary  life  has  its  perils,  so  far  as  domesticity 
is  concerned.  Sir  Walter  Scott  in  his  life  of 
Dryden  speaks  of  : — 

Her  who  had  to  endure  the  apparently  causeless  fluctua- 
tion of  spirits  incidental  to  one  compelled  to  dwell  for 
long  periods  of  time  in  the  fitful  realms  of  the  imagination, 

and  it  is  certain  that  those  who  dwell  in  the 
realms  of  the  imagination  are  usually  very  irritable, 
very  difficult  to  live  with.  Literary  history  in 
its  personal  side  is  largely  a  dismal  narrative  of 
the  uncomfortable  relations  of  men  of  genius 
with  their  wives  and  with  their  families.  Your 
man  of  genius  thinks  himself  bound  to  hang  up 
his  riddle  in  his  own  house,  however  merry  a 
fellow  he  may  prove  himself  to  a  hundred  boon 
companions  outside.  George  Borrow  was  perhaps 


GEORGE  BORROW  79 

the  opposite  of  all  this.  As  a  companion  and  a 
neighbour  he  did  not  always  shine,  if  the  impres- 
sion of  many  a  witness  is  to  be  trusted.  They 
tell  anecdotes  of  his  lack  of  cordiality,  of  his 
unsociability,  and  so  on.  They  have  told  those 
anecdotes  more  industriously  in  Norwich  than 
anywhere  else.  He  himself  in  an  incomparable 
account  of  going  to  church  with  the  gypsies  in 
The  Romany  Rye  has  the  following  : 

It  appeared  as  if  I  had  fallen  asleep  in  the  pew  of 
the  old  church  of  pretty  Dereham.  I  had  occasionally 
done  so  when  a  child,  and  had  suddenly  woke  up.  Yes, 
surely,  I  had  been  asleep  and  had  woke  up  ;  but  no  !  if 
I  had  been  asleep  I  had  been  waking  in  my  sleep,  strug- 
gling, striving,  learning  and  unlearning  in  my  sleep. 
Years  had  rolled  away  whilst  I  had  been  asleep — ripe 
fruit  had  fallen,  green  fruit  had  come  on  whilst  I  had 
been  asleep — how  circumstances  had  altered,  and  above 
all  myself  whilst  I  had  been  asleep.  No,  I  had  not  been 
asleep  in  the  old  church  !  I  was  in  a  pew,  it  is  true,  but 
not  the  pew  of  black  leather,  in  which  I  sometimes  fell 
asleep  in  days  of  yore,  but  in  a  strange  pew ;  and  then 
my  companions,  they  were  no  longer  those  of  days  of 
yore.  I  was  no  longer  with  my  respectable  father  and 
mother,  and  my  dear  brother,  but  with  the  gypsy  cral 
and  his  wife,  and  the  gigantic  Tawno,  the  Antinous  of 
the  dusky  people.  And  what  was  I  myself  ?  No  longer 
an  innocent  child  but  a  moody  man,  bearing  in  my  face, 


8o    TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

as  I  knew  well,  the  marks  of  my  strivings  and  strugglings ; 
of  what  I  had  learnt  and  unlearnt. 

But  this  "  moody  man,"  let  it  be  always 
remembered,  was  a  good  husband  and  father. 
His  wife  was  devoted  to  him,  his  step-daughter 
carries  now  to  an  old  age  a  profound  reverence 
and  affection  for  his  memory.  Grieved  beyond 
all  words  was  she — the  Henrietta  or  "  Hen  "  of 
all  his  books — at  what  is  maintained  to  be  the 
utterly  fictitious  narrative  of  Borrow's  described 
deathbed  that  Professor  Knapp  presented  from 
the  ill-considered  gossip  that  he  picked  up  while 
staying  in  the  neighbourhood.1  Borrow  has  him- 
self something  to  say  concerning  his  family  in 
Wild  Wales  :— 

Of  my  wife  I  will  merely  say  that  she  is  a  perfect  paragon 
of  wives — can  make  puddings  and  sweets  and  treacle 
posset,  and  is  the  best  woman  of  business  in  East  Anglia  : 
of  my  step-daughter,  for  such  she  is  though  I  generally 
call  her  daughter,  and  with  good  reason  seeing  that  she 

1  Borrow's  step-daughter,  Henrietta  Clarke,  married  James 
McOubrey,  an  Irish  doctor.  She  outlived  Borrow  for  many 
years,  dying  at  Great  Yarmouth  in  1904.  All  her  literary 
effects,  including  many  interesting  manuscripts,  have  been 
passed  on  to  me  by  her  executor,  Mr.  Hubert  Smith,  and 
these  will  be  used  in  my  forthcoming  biography  of  Borrow. 


GEORGE  BORROW  81 

has  always  shown  herself  a  daughter  to  me,  that  she  has 
all  kinds  of  good  qualities  and  several  accomplishments, 
knowing  something  of  conchology,  more  of  botany, 
drawing  capitally  in  the  Dutch  style,  and  playing  remark- 
ably well  on  the  guitar. 

Yes,  I  am  not  quite  sure  but  that  Borrow  was 
really  a  good  fellow  all  round,  as  well  as  being  a 
good  husband  and  father.  He  hated  the  literary 
class,  it  is  true.  He  considered  that  the  "  con- 
temptible trade  of  author,"  as  he  called  it,  was 
less  creditable  than  that  of  a  jockey.  He  avoided 
as  much  as  possible  the  writers  of  books,  and 
particularly  the  blue-stocking,  and  when  they 
came  in  his  way  he  was  not  always  very  polite, 
sometimes  much  the  reverse.  Only  the  other 
day  a  letter  was  published  from  the  late  Professor 
Cowell  describing  a  visit  to  Borrow  and  his  not 
very  friendly  reception.  Well,  Borrow  was  here 
as  elsewhere  a  man  of  insight.  The  literary  class 
is  usually  a  very  narrow  class.  It  can  talk  about 
no  trade  but  its  own.  Things  have  grown  worse 
since  Borrow's  day,  I  am  sure,  but  they  were  bad 
enough  then.  Borrow  was  a  man  of  very  varied 
tastes.  He  took  interest  in  gypsies  and  horses 
and  prize  fighters  and  a  hundred  other  enter- 

I.M.  6 


82   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

taining  matters,  and  so  he  despised  the  literary 
class,  which  cared  for  none  of  these  things. 
But  unhappily  for  his  fame  the  literary  class  has 
had  the  final  word ;  it  has  revealed  all  the 
gossip  of  a  gossiping  peasantry,  and  it  has  done 
its  best  to  present  the  recluse  of  Oulton  in  a 
disagreeable  light.  Fortunately  for  Borrow,  who 
kept  the  bores  at  bay  and  contented  himself 
with  but  few  friends,  there  were  at  least  two 
who  survived  him  to  bear  testimony  to  the 
effect  that  he  was  "  a  singularly  steadfast  and 
loyal  friend."  One  of  these  was  Mr.  Watts- 
Dunton,  who  tells  us  in  one  of  his  essays  that  : 

George  Borrow  was  a  good  man,  a  most  winsome  and 
a  most  charming  companion,  an  English  gentleman, 
straightforward,  honest,  and  brave  as  the  very  best 
examplars  of  that  fine  old  type. 

I  have  dwelt  longer  on  this  aspect  of  my  sub- 
ject than  I  should  have  done  had  I  been  addressing 
any  other  audience  than  a  Norwich  one.  But 
the  fact  is  that  all  the  gossip  and  backbiting  and 
censoriousness  that  has  gathered  round  Borrow 
for  a  hundred  years  has  come  out  of  this  very 
city,  commencing  with  the  "  bursts  of  laughter  " 
that,  according  to  Miss  Martineau,  greeted  Bor- 


GEORGE  BORROW  83 

row's  travels  in  Spain  for  the  Bible  Society. 
Borrow  was  twenty-one  years  of  age  when  he 
left  Norwich  to  make  his  way  in  the  world. 
During  the  next  twenty  years  he  may  have  under- 
gone many  changes  of  intellectual  view,  as  most 
of  us  do,  as  Miss  Martineau  notably  did,  and 
Miss  Martineau  and  her  laughing  friends  were 
diabolically  uncharitable.  That  lack  of  chanty 
followed  Borrow  throughout  his  life.  He  was 
libelled  by  many,  by  Miss  Frances  Power  Cobbe 
most  of  all.  However,  the  great  city  of  Norwich 
will  make  up  for  it  in  the  future,  and  she  will 
love  Borrow  as  Borrow  indisputably  loved  her. 
How  he  praised  her  fine  cathedral,  her  lordly 
castle,  her  Mousehold  Heath,  her  meadows  in 
which  he  once  saw  a  prize  fight,  her  pleasant 
scenery — no  city,  not  even  glorious  Oxford, 
has  been  so  well  and  adequately  praised,  and  I 
desire  to  show  that  that  praise  is  not  for  an  age 
but  for  all  time. 

If  George  Borrow  has  not  been  happy  in  his 
biographer,  and  if,  as  is  true,  he  has  received 
but  inadequate  treatment  on  this  account — such 
series  of  little  books  as  The  English  Men  of 
Letters  and  the  Great  Writers  quite  ignoring 


84   TO  THE   IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

him — he  has  been  equally  unfortunate  in  his 
critics.  There  are  hardly  any  good  and  dis- 
tinctive appreciations  in  print  of  Borrow's  works. 
While  other  great  names  in  the  great  literature 
of  the  Victorian  Period  have  been  praised  by 
a  hundred  pens,  there  has  scarcely  been  any 
notable  and  worthy  praise  of  Borrow,  and  if  I  were 
in  an  audience  that  was  at  all  sceptical  as  to  Bor- 
row's supreme  merits,  which  happily  I  am  not ; 
if  I  were  among  those  who  declared  that  they 
could  see  but  small  merit  in  Borrow  themselves, 
but  were  prepared  to  accept  him  if  only  I  could 
bring  good  authority  that  he  was  a  very  great 
writer,  I  should  be  hardly  put  to  to  comply  with 
the  demand.  I  can  only  name  Mr.  Theodore 
Watts-Dunton  and  Mr.  Augustine  Birrell  as 
critics  of  considerable  status  who  have  praised 
Borrow  well.  "  The  delightful,  the  bewitching, 
the  never  sufficiently-to-be-praised  George  Bor- 
row," says  Mr.  Birrell  in  one  of  the  essays  he  has 
written  on  the  subject ;  l  while  Mr.  Theodore 

1  I  ventured  to  ask  my  friend  Mr.  Birrell  for  a  line  to  read 
to  my  Norwich  audience  and  he  sent  me  the  following  charac- 
teristic letter  dated  December  8,  1903  : — 

". .  .  For  my  part  I  should  leave  George  Borrow  alone,  to  take 
his  own  part  even  as  Isopel  Berners  learnt  to  take  hers  in  the 


GEORGE  BORROW  85 

Watts-Dunton,  has  written  no  less  than  four 
papers  on  one  whom  he  knew  and  admires  per- 
sonally, and  of  whom  he  insists  that  "  his  idealiz- 
ing powers,  his  romantic  cast  of  mind,  his  force, 
his  originality,  give  him  a  title  to  a  permanent 
place  high  in  the  ranks  of  English  prose  writers." 
All  this  is  very  interesting,  but  in  literature 
as  in  life  we  have  got  to  work  out  our  own  des- 

great  house  '  at  Long  Melford.  He  has  an  appealing  voice 
which  no  sooner  falls  on  the  ear  of  the  born  Borrovian,  than 
up  the  lucky  fellow  must  get  and  follow  his  master  to  the  end 
of  the  chapter. 

"  However,  if  you  will  insist  upon  going  out  into  the  high- 
ways and  hedges  and  compelling  the  wayfaring  man — though 
a  fool — to  come  in  and  take  a  seat  at  the  Lavengro  feast,  no- 
body can  stop  you. 

"  The  great  thing  is  to  get  people  to  read  the  Borrow  books 
there  is  nothing  else  to  be  done.  If,  after  having  read  them, 
some  enthusiasts  go  on  to  learn  Romany  and  seek  to  trace 
authorities  on  Gypsies  and  Gypsy  lore — why,  let  them.  They 
may  soon  know  more  about  Gypsies  than  Borrow  ever  did — 
but  they  will  never  write  about  them  as  he  did. 

"  The  essence  of  the  matter  is  to  enjoy  Sorrow's  books  for 
themselves  alone.  As  for  Sorrow's  biography,  it  appears  to 
me  either  that  he  has  already  written  it,  or  it  is  not  worth 
writing.  Anyhow,  place  the  books  in  the  forefront ,  reprint 
things  as  often  as  you  dare  without  note  or  comment  or  even 
prefatory  appreciation,  and  you  cannot  but  earn  the  gratitude 
of  every  true  Borrovian  who  in  consequence  of  your  efforts 
come  upon  the  Borrow  books  for  the  first  time." 


86   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

tinies.  We  have  not  got  to  accept  Borrow  because 
this  or  that  critic  tells  us  he  is  good.  I  have 
therefore  no  quarrel  with  any  one  present  who 
does  not  share  my  view  that  Borrow  was  one  of 
the  greater  glories  of  English  literature.  I  only 
desire  to  state  my  case  for  him. 

To  be  a  lover  of  Borrow,  a  Borrovian,  in  fact, 
it  is  not  necessary  to  know  all  his  books.  You 
may  never  have  seen  copies  of  the  Romantic 
Ballads  or  of  Faustus,  of  Targum  or  of  The  Turk- 
ish Jester,  of  Borrow's  translation  of  The  Talis- 
man of  Pushkin.  Your  state  may  be  none  the 
less  gracious.  To  possess  these  books  is  largely 
a  collector's  hobby.  They  are  interesting,  but 
they  would  not  have  made  for  the  author  an 
undying  reputation.  Further,  you  may  not  care 
for  The  Bible  in  Spain,  you  may  be  untouched 
by  the  Gypsies  in  Spain  and  Wild  Wales,  and 
even  then  I  will  not  deny  to  you  the  title  of  a 
good  Borrovian,  if  only  you  pronounce  Lavengro 
and  The  Romany  Rye  to  be  among  the  greatest 
books  you  know.  I  can  admire  the  Gypsies  in  Spain 
and  Wild  Wales.  I  can  read  The  Bible  in  Spain 
with  something  of  the  enthusiasm  with  which 
our  fathers  read  it.  It  is  a  stirring  narrative  of 


GEORGE  BORROW  87 

travel  and  much  more.  Robert  Louis  Stevenson 
did,  indeed,  rank  it  among  his  "  dear  acquaint- 
ances "  in  bookland,  "  the  Pilgrim's  Progress  in 
the  first  rank,  The  Bible  in  Spain  not  far  behind," 
he  says.  All  the  same,  it  has  not,  none  of  these 
three  books  has,  the  distinctive  mark  of  first 
class  genius  that  belongs  to  the  other  two  in  the 
five-volumed  edition  of  Borrow's  Collected  Works 
that  many  of  us  have  read  through  more  than 
once.  Not  all  clever  people  have  thought  Laven- 
gro  and  The  Romany  Rye  to  be  thus  great.  A 
critic  in  the  Athenaeum  declared  Lavengro  when 
it  was  published  in  1851  to  be  "  balderdash," 
while  a  critic  writing  just  fifty  years  afterwards 
and  writing  from  Norfolk,  alas  !  insisted  that 
the  author  of  this  book  "  was  absolutely  wanting 
in  the  power  of  invention  "  that  he  (Borrow) 
could  "  only  have  drawn  upon  his  memory,"  that 
he  had  "  no  sense  of  humour."  If  all  this  were 
true,  if  half  of  it  were  true,  Borrow  was  not  the 
great  man,  the  great  writer  that  I  take  him  to 
be.  But  it  is  not  true.  Lavengro  with  its  con- 
tinuation The  Romany  Rye,  is  a  great  work  of 
imagination,  of  invention  ;  it  is  in  no  sense  a 
photograph,  a  memory  picture,  and  it  abounds 


88   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

in  humour  as  it  abounds  in  many  other 
great  characteristics.  What  makes  an  author 
supremely  great  ?  Surely  a  certain  quality 
which  we  call  genius,  as  distinct  from  the 
mere  intellectual  power  of  some  less  brilliant 
writer  : — 

True  genius  is  the  ray  that  flings 
A  novel  light  o'er  common  things 

and  here  it  is  that  Borrow  shines  supreme.  He 
has  invested  with  quite  novel  light  a  hundred 
commonplace  aspects  of  life.  Not  an  inventor  ! 
not  imaginative  !  Why,  one  of  the  indictments 
against  him  is  that  philologists  decry  his  philology 
and  gyptologists  his  gypsy  learning.  If,  then, 
his  philology  and  his  gypsy  lore  were  imperfect, 
as  I  believe  they  were,  how  much  the  greater  an 
imaginative  writer  he  was.  To  say  that  Laven- 
gro  merely  indicates  keen  observation  is  absurd. 
Not  the  keenest  observation  will  crowd  so  many 
adventures,  adventures  as  fresh  and  as  novel  as 
those  of  Gil  Bias  or  Robinson  Crusoe,  into  a  few 
months'  experience.  "  I  felt  some  desire,"  says 
Lavengro,  "  to  meet  with  one  of  those  adven- 
tures which  upon  the  roads  of  England  are  gener- 
ally as  plentiful  as  blackberries  in  autumn."  I 


GEORGE  BORROW  89 

think  that  most  of  us  will  wander  along  the  roads 
of  England  for  a  very  long  time  before  we  meet 
an  Isopel  Berners,  before  we  have  such  an  adven- 
ture as  that  of  the  blacksmith  and  his  horse,  or 
of  the  apple  woman  whose  favourite  reading 
was  Moll  Flanders.  These  and  a  hundred  other 
adventures,  the  fight  with  the  Flaming  Tinman, 
the  poisoning  of  Lavengro  by  the  gypsy  woman, 
the  discourse  with  Ursula  under  the  hedge,  when 
once  read  are  fixed  upon  the  memory  for  ever. 
And  yet  you  may  turn  to  them  again  and  again, 
and  with  ever  increasing  zest.  The  story 
of  Isopel  Berners  is  a  piece  of  imaginative 
writing  that  certainly  has  no  superior  in  the 
literature  of  the  last  century.  It  was  assuredly 
no  photographic  experience.  Isopel  Berners  is 
herself  a  creation  ranking  among  the  fine  creations 
of  womanhood  of  the  finest  writers.  I  doubt 
not  but  that  it  was  inspired  by  some  actual 
memory  of  Borrow — the  memory  of  some  early 
love  affair  in  which  the  distractions  of  his  mania 
for  word-learning — the  Armenian  and  other  lan- 
guages— led  him  to  pass  by  some  opportunity  of 
his  life,  losing  the  substance  for  the  shadow.  But 
whether  there  were  ever  a  real  Isopel  we  shall 


90   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

never  know.  We  do  know  that  Borrow  has  pre- 
sented his  fictitious  one  with  infinite  poetry  and 
fine  imaginative  power.  We  do  know,  moreover, 
that  it  is  not  right  to  describe  Isopel  Berners  as  a 
marvellous  episode  in  a  narrative  of  other  texture. 
Lavengro  is  full  of  marvellous  episodes.  Some 
one  has  ventured  to  comment  upon  Borrow's 
style — to  imply  that  it  is  not  always  on  a  high 
plane.  What  does  that  matter  ?  Style  is  not 
the  quality  that  makes  a  book  live,  but  the 
novelty  of  the  ideas.  Stevenson  was  a  splendid 
stylist,  and  his  admirers  have  deluded  themselves 
into  believing  that  he  was,  therefore,  among  the 
immortals.  But  Stevenson  had  nothing  new  to 
tell  the  world,  and  he  was  not,  he  is  not,  therefore 
of  the  immortals.  Borrow  is  of  the  immortals, 
not  by  virtue  of  a  style,  but  by  virtue  of  having 
something  new  to  say.  He  is  with  Dickens  and 
with  Carlyle  as  one  of  the  three  great  British 
prose  writers  of  the  age  we  call  Victorian,  who 
in  quite  different  ways  have  presented  a  new 
note  for  their  own  time  and  for  long  after.  It 
is  the  distinction  of  Borrow  that  he  has  invested 
the  common  life  of  the  road,  of  the  highway, 
the  path  through  the  meadow,  the  gypsy  encamp- 


GEORGE  BORROW  91 

ment,  the  country  fair,  the  very  apple  stall  and 
wayside  inn  with  an  air  of  romance  that  can 
never  leave  those  of  us  who  have  once  come  under 
the  magnificent  spell  of  Lavengro  and  the  Romany 
Rye.  Perhaps  Borrow  is  pre-eminently  the  writer 
for  those  who  sit  in  armchairs  and  dream  of 
adventures  they  will  never  undertake.  Perhaps 
he  will  never  be  the  favourite  author  of  the 
really  adventurous  spirit,  who  wants  the  real 
thing,  the  latest  book  of  actual  travel.  But  to 
be  the  favourite  author  of  those  who  sit  in 
arm-chairs  is  no  small  thing,  and,  as  I  have  said 
already,  Borrow  stands  with  Carlyle  and  Dickens 
in  our  century,  by  which  I  mean  the  nineteenth 
century ;  with  Defoe  and  Goldsmith  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  as  one  of  the  really  great 
and  imperishable  masters  of  our  tongue. 

What  then  will  Norwich  do  for  George  Bor- 
row ?  I  ask  this  question,  although  it  would, 
perhaps,  be  an  impertinence  to  ask  it  were  I  not 
a  Norwich  man.  If  you  have  read  Dr.  Knapp's 
Life  of  Borrow,  you  will  have  seen  more  than  one 
reference  to  Mrs.  Borrow's  landlord,  "  old  King," 
"  Tom  King  the  carpenter,"  and  so  on,  who 
owned  the  house  in  Willow  Lane  in  which  Bor- 


92    TO  THE  IMMORTAL   MEMORY  OF 

row  spent  his  boyhood.  That  '  old  King  the 
carpenter  ' — I  believe  he  called  himself  a  builder, 
but  perhaps  this  was  when  he  grew  more  pros- 
perous— was  my  great-great-uncle.  One  of  his 
sons  became  physician  to  Prince  Talleyrand  and 
married  a  sister  of  John  Stuart  Mill.  One  of 
his  great-nieces  was  my  grandmother,  and  her 
mother's  family,  the  Parkers,  had  lived  in  Nor~ 
wich  for  many  generations.  So  on  the  strength 
of  this  little  piece  of  genealogy  let  me  claim,  not 
only  to  be  a  good  Borrovian,  but  also  a  good 
Norvicensian.  Grant  me  then  a  right  to  plead 
for  a  practical  recognition  of  Borrow  in  the 
city  that  he  loved  most,  although  he  sometimes 
scolded  it  as  it  often  scolded  him.  I  should 
like  to  see  a  statue,  or  some  similar  memorial. 
If  you  pass  through  the  cities  of  the  Con- 
tinent— French,  German,  or  Belgian — you  will 
find  in  well-nigh  every  town  a  memorial  to 
this  or  that  worthy  connected  with  its  literary 
or  artistic  fame.  How  many  memorials  has 
Norwich  to  the  people  connected  with  its 
literary  or  artistic  fame  ?  Nay,  I  am  not  rash 
and  impetuous.  I  would  beg  any  one  of  my 
hearers  who  thinks  that  Borrow  might  well  have 


GEORGE   BORROW  93 

a  memorial  in  marble  or  bronze  in  your  city  to 
wait  a  while.  You  are  busy  with  a  statue 
to  Sir  Thomas  Browne — a  most  commendable 
scheme.  To  attempt  to  raise  one  to  Borrow 
at  this  moment  would  probably  be  to  court 
disaster.  Nor  do  I  advocate  a  memorial  by 
private  subscription.  Observation  has  shown 
me  what  that  means :  failure  or  half  failure 
in  nearly  every  case.  The  memorial  when  it 
comes  must  be  initiated  by  the  City  Fathers 
in  council  assembled.  That  time  is  perhaps  far 
distant.  But  let  us  all  do  everything  we  can  to 
make  secure  the  high  and  honourable  achieve- 
ment of  George  Borrow,  to  kindle  an  interest  in 
him  and  his  writings,  to  extend  a  taste  for  the 
undoubted  beauties  of  his  works  among  all  classes 
of  his  fellow-citizens — that  is  to  secure  Borrow 
the  best  of  all  monuments.  More  durable  than 
brass  will  be  the  memorial  that  is  contained  in 
the  assurance  that  he  possesses  the  reverence  and 
the  homage  of  all  true  Norfolk  hearts. 


TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 
GEORGE  CRABBE 


IV 

TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 
GEORGE  CRABBE 

An  Address  delivered  at  the  Crabbe  Celebration  at 
Aldeburgh  in  Suffolk  on  the  l6th  of  September, 
1905. 

I  HAVE  been  asked  to  say  something  in  praise  of 
George  Crabbe.  The  task  would  be  an  easier 
one  were  it  not  for  the  presence  of  the  dis- 
tinguished critic  from  the  University  of  Nancy 
who  is  with  us  to-day.  M.  Huchon1  has 
devoted  to  the  subject  a  singleminded  zeal 
to  which  one  whose  profession  is  primarily 
that  of  a  journalist  can  make  no  claim.  More- 
over it  has  been  well  said  that  the  judgment 
of  foreigners  is  the  judgment  of  -posterity,  and  I 
fully  believe  that  where  a  writer  has  secured  the 
suffrages  of  men  of  another  nation  than  his  own, 
he  has  done  more  for  his  ultimate  fame  than  the 

1  M.  Rene  Huchon,  who  addressed  the  visitors  at  the  Crabbe 
Celebration,  published  his  George  Crabbe  and  his  Times:  A 
Critical  and  Biographical  Study,  through  Mr.  John  Murray, 
early  in  the  present  year,  1907. 

I.M.  97  « 


98   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

passing  and  fickle  favour  of  his  countrymen  can 
secure  for  him.  In  any  case  Crabbe  has  been 
praised  more  eloquently  than  almost  any  other 
modern,  and  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  was 
not  read  by  the  generation  succeeding  his  death, 
nor  is  he  read  much  in  our  own  time. 

If  you  want  to  read  Crabbe  to-day  in  his  en- 
tirety, you  must  become  possessed  of  a  huge  and 
clumsy  volume  of  sombre  appearance,  small  type 
and  repellant  double  columns.  For  fully  seventy 
years  it  has  not  paid  a  publisher  to  reprint  Crabbe's 
poems  properly.1  When  this  was  achieved  in 
1834,  tne  edition  in  eight  volumes  was  compara- 
tively a  failure,  and  the  promised  two  volumes 
of  essays  and  sermons  were  not  forthcoming  in 
consequence.  Selections  from  Crabbe  have  been 
many,  but  when  all  is  said  he  has  been  the  least 
read  for  the  past  sixty  or  seventy  years  of  all  the 
authors  who  have  claims  to  be  considered  classics. 
The  least  read  but  perhaps  the  best  praised — 
that  is  one  point  of  certainty.  The  praise  began 

1  This  reproach  has  since  been  removed  by  the  appearance 
of  the  Complete  Works  of  George  Crabbe  in  three  volumes  of  the 
Cambridge  English  Classics  Series,  published  by  the  Cambridge 
University  Press,  and  edited  by  Dr.  A.  W.  Ward,  the  Master  of 
Peterhouse. 


GEORGE  CRABBE  99 

with    the    politicians — with    the    two    greatest 
political  leaders  of  their  age.     The  eloquent  and 
noble  Edmund  Burke,  the  great-hearted  Charles 
James  Fox.     Burke  "  made  "  George  Crabbe  as 
no  poet  was  ever  made  before  or  since.     To  me 
there  is  no  picture  in  all  literature  more  unflag- 
gingly  interesting  than  that  of  the  great   man, 
whose  life  was  so  full  "of  affairs,  taking  the  poor 
young  stranger  by  the  hand,  reading  through  his 
abundant  manuscripts,  and  therefrom  selecting — 
as   the    poet   was    quite    unable   to   select — The 
Library  and  The  Village  as  the  most  suitable  for 
publication,  helping  him  to  a  publisher,  intro- 
ducing him  to  friends,  and  proving  himself  quite 
untiring   on   his    behalf.     There   is   a   letter   of 
Burke's    printed    in    a    little   known    book — The 
Correspondence  of  Sir  Thomas  Hanmer,  Speaker  of 
the  House  of  Commons — in  which  Burke  takes 
the  trouble  to  defend  Crabbe's  moral  character 
and  to  press  his  claims  for  being  admitted  to  holy 
orders.     "  Dudley  North  tells  me,"  he  continues, 
"  that  he  has  the  best  character  possible  among 
those  with  whom  he  has  always  lived,  that  he  is 
now  working  hard  to  qualify,  and  has  not  only 
Latin,  but  some  smattering  of  Greek."     It  had 


ioo  TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

its  gracious  amenities,  that  eighteenth  century, 
for  I  do  not  believe  that  there  is  a  man  in  the 
ranks  of  the  present  Government,  or  of  the  present 
Opposition,  who  would  take  all  this  trouble  for 
a  poor  unknown  who  had  appealed  to  him  merely 
by  two  or  three  long  letters  recounting  his  career. 
Nay,  Cabinet  Ministers  are  less  punctilious  than 
formerly,  and  the  newest  type,  I  understand, 
leaves  letters  unanswered.  I  can  imagine  the 
attitude  of  one  of  our  modern  statesmen  in  the 
face  of  two  quite  bulky  packages  of  many 
sheets  from  a  young  author.  He  would  request 
his  secretary  to  see  what  they  were  all  about, 
and  then  would  follow  the  curt  answer — "  I 
am  directed  by  Dash  to  say  that  he  cannot 
comply  with  your  request."  Burke  not  only 
wrote  to  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
but  enclosed  Crabbe's  letter  to  him,  a  quite 
wonderful  piece  of  autobiography.1  All  Crabbe's 
admirers  should  read  that  letter.  Crabbe  apolo- 
gizes for  writing  again,  and  refers  to  "  these 
repeated  attacks  on  your  patience."  "  My 

1  The  original  letter  is  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  A.  M.  Broad- 
ley,  of  Bridport.  It  is  reprinted  from  the  Hanmer  Corre- 
spondence in  an  appendix  to  M.  Huchon's  biography. 


GEORGE  CRABBE  101 

father,"  he  said,  "  had  a  place  in  the  Custom 
House  at  Aldeburgh.  He  had  a  large  family, 
%  little  income  and  no  economy,"  and  then  the 
story  of  his  life  up  to  that  time  is  told  to  Burke 
in  fullest  detail. 

Again,  there  is  that  other  statesman-admirer 
of  Crabbe,  Charles  James  Fox.  Fox  gave  to 
Crabbe's  work  an  admiration  which  never  faltered, 
and  on  his  death-bed  requested  that  the  pathetic 
story  of  Phoebe  Dawson  in  The  Parish  Register 
should  be  read  to  him — it  was,  we  are  told,  "  the 
last  piece  of  poetry  that  soothed  his  dying  ear." 

In  Lord  Holland's  Memoirs  of  the  Whig  Party 
there  is  a  statement  by  his  nephew  which  no 
biographer  so  far  has  quoted  : — 

I  read  over  to  him  the  whole  of  Crabbe's  Parish 
Register  in  manuscript.  Some  parts  he  made  me  read 
twice ;  lie  remarked  several  passages  as  exquisitely  beau- 
tiful, and  objected  to  some  few  which  I  mentioned  to 
the  author  and  which  he,  in  almost  every  instance,  altered 
before  publication.  Mr.  Fox  repeated  once  or  twice 
that  it  was  a  very  pretty  poem,  that  Crabbe's  condition 
in  the  world  had  improved  since  he  wrote  The  Village, 
and  his  view  of  life,  likewise  The  Parish  Register,  bore 
marks  of  considerably  more  indulgence  to  our  species ; 
though  not  so  many  as  he  could  have  wished,  especially 


102   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

as  the  few  touches  of  that  nature  were  beautiful  in  the 
extreme.  He  was  particularly  struck  with  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  substantial  happiness  of  a  farmer's  wife. 

From  great  novelists  the  tributes  are  not  less 
noteworthy  than  from  great  statesmen.  Jane 
Austen,  whose  personality  perhaps  has  more  real 
womanly  attractiveness  than  that  of  any  sister 
novelist  of  the  first  rank,  declared  playfully  that 
if  she  could  have  been  persuaded  to  change  her 
state  it  would  have  been  to  become  Mrs.  Crabbe  ; 
and  who  can  forget  Sir  Walter  Scott's  request 
in  his  last  illness  :  "  Read  me  some  amusing 
thing — read  me  a  bit  of  Crabbe."  They  read 
to  him  from  Ihe  Borough,  and  we  all  remember 
his  comment,  "  Capital — excellent — very  good." 
Yet  at  this  time — in  1832 — any  popularity  that 
Crabbe  had  once  enjoyed  was  already  on  the 
wane.  Other  idols  had  caught  the  popular  taste, 
and  from  that  day  to  this  there  was  to  be  no 
real  revival  of  appreciation  for  these  poems. 
There  were  to  be  no  lack  of  admirers,  however, 
of  the  audience  "  fit  though  few."  Byron's 
praise  has  been  too  often  quoted  for  repetition. 
Wordsworth,  who  rarely  praised  his  contempora- 
ries in  poetry,  declared  of  Crabbe  that  his  works 


GEORGE  CRABBE  103 

"  would  last  from  their  combined  merit  as  poetry 
and  truth."  Macaulay  writes  of  "  that  in- 
comparable passage  in  Crabbe's  Borough  which 
has  made  many  a  rough  and  cynical  reader  cry 
like  a  child  " — the  passage  in  which  the  con- 
demned felon 

Takes  his  tasteless  food,  and  when  'tis  done, 
Counts  up  his  meals,  now  lessen'd  by  that  one, — 

a  story  which  Macaulay  bluntly  charges  Robert 
Montgomery  with  stealing.  Lord  Tennyson, 
again,  at  a  much  later  date,  admitted  that 
"  Crabbe  has  a  world  of  his  own." 

Not  less  impressive  surely  is  the  attitude  of 
the  two  writers  as  far  as  the  poles  asunder  in 
their  outlook  upon  life  and  its  mysteries — Car- 
dinal Newman  and  Edward  FitzGerald.  The 
famous  theologian,  we  learn  from  the  Letters  and 
Correspondence  collected  by  Anne  Mozley,  writes 
in  1820  of  his  "excessive  fondness"  for  The 
Tales  of  the  Hall,  and  thirty  years  later  in  one  of 
his  Discourses  he  says  of  Crabbe's  poems  that 
they  are  among  "  the  most  touching  in  our 
language."  Still  another  twenty  years,  and  the 
aged  cardinal  reread  Crabbe  to  find  that  he 


104   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

was  more  delighted  than  ever   with   our    poet. 
That  great  nineteenth    century  pagan,   on    the 
other   hand,   that    prince   of  letter-writers   and 
wonderful  poet  of  whom  Suffolk  has  also  reason 
to    be    proud,    Edward    FitzGerald,   was    even 
more    ardent.       Praise    of   Crabbe    is  scattered 
freely   throughout   the    many    volumes    of    his 
correspondence,  and  he  edited,  as  we  all  know, 
a   book   of    Selections,    which    I   want     to     see 
reprinted.      It  contains  a  preface  that,  it  may 
be    admitted,    is    not    really    worthy    of     Fitz- 
Gerald,   so    lacking    is    it    in     the    force    and 
vigour    of    his    correspondence.      But    this    also 
was  in  fact  yet  another  death-bed  tribute,  for  it 
was,  I  think,  one  of  the  last  things  FitzGerald 
wrote.     FitzGerald,    however,    has    done    more 
for  Crabbe  among  the  moderns  than  any  other 
man.     His   keen   literary   judgment    must    have 
brought  new  converts  to  that  limited  brotherhood 
of  the  elect,  of  which  this  gathering  forms  no 
inconsiderable  portion. 

We  have  one  advantage  in  speaking  about 
George  Crabbe  that  does  not  obtain  with  any 
other  poet  of  great  eminence ;  that  is  to  say,  that 
his  life  story  has  not  been  hackneyed  by  repetition. 


GEORGE  CRABBE  105 

With  almost  any  other  writer  there  is  some  stand- 
ing biography  which  is  widely  familiar.  The 
Life  of  George  Crabbe,  written  by  his  son,  although 
it  is  one  of  the  very  best  biographies  that  I  have 
ever  read,  is  little  known.  It  was  quite  out  of 
print  for  years,  and  it  has  never  been  reprinted 
separately  from  the  poems.  It  is  an  admirable 
biography,  and  it  offers  a  contradiction  of  the 
view  occasionally  urged  that  a  man's  life  should 
not  be  written  by  a  member  of  his  own  family ; 
for  George  Crabbe  the  second  would  seem  not 
only  to  have  been  an  exceedingly  able  man,  but 
possessed  of  a  frankness  of  disposition  in  criti- 
cizing his  father  which  sons  are  often  prone  to 
show  in  real  life,  but  which,  I  imagine,  they 
rarely  show  in  print.  His  book  is  a  model 
of  candid  statement,  treating  of  Crabbe's  little 
weaknesses — and  who  of  us  has  not  his  little 
weaknesses — in  the  most  cheery  possible  manner. 
It  is  perhaps  a  small  matter  to  tell  us  in  one  place 
of  his  father's  want  of  "  taste,"  his  insensibility 
to  the  beauty  of  order  in  his  composition — that 
had  been  done  by  the  critics  before  him ;  but  he 
even  has  something  to  say  about  the  philandering 
which  characterized  the  old  gentleman  in  the 


io6   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

last  years  of  his  life,  his  apparent  anxiety  to  get 
married  again.1  The  only  thing  that  he  all  but 
ignores  is  Crabbe's  opium  habit — a  habit  that 
came  to  him  as  a  sedative  from  a  painful  com- 
plaint and  inspired,  as  was  the  case  with  Coleridge, 
his  more  melodious  utterances.  Taken  altogether 
the  picture  is  as  pleasant  as  it  is  capable  and 
exhaustive.  We  see  his  early  boyhood  at  Aide- 
burgh,  his  schooldays  :  his  first  period  of  unhappi- 
ness  at  Slaughden  Quay,  his  apprenticeship  near 
Bury  St.  Edmunds,  where  we  seem  to  hear  his 
master's  daughters,  when  he  reached  the  door, 
exclaim  with  laughter,  "  La  !  Here's  our  new 
'prentice."  We  follow  him  a  little  higher,  to 
the  house  of  the  Woodbridge  surgeon,  then 
through  his  prolonged  courtship  of  Sarah  Elmy, 
then  to  those  dreary,  uncongenial  duties  of  piling 
up  butter  casks  on  Slaughden  Quay.  A  brief  period 
of  starvation  in  London,  and  we  find  him  again  in 
a  chemist's  shop  in  Aldeburgh.  Lastly  comes 
his  most  important  journey  to  London  upon 
the  borrowed  sum  of  .£5,  only  three  of  which  he 

1  But  M.  Huchon  makes  it  clear  in  George  Crabbe  and  his 
Times  that  Crabbe  declined  at  the  last  moment  to  marry  Miss 
Charlotte  Ridout,  who  seems  to  have  been  really  in  love  with 
him. 


GEORGE  CRABBE  107 

carried  in  hard  cash.  His  hand  to  mouth  exist- 
ence in  London  for  some  months  is  among  the 
most  interesting  things  in  literature.  Chatter- 
ton's  tragic  fate  might  have  been  his,  but,  more 
fortunate  than  Chatterton,  he  had  friends  at 
Beccles  who  helped  him,  and  he  was  even  able 
to  publish  a  poem,  The  Candidate.  Although 
this  poem  contained  only  thirty-four  pages,  one 
is  not  quite  sure  but  that  it  helped  to  ruin  its 
publisher.  In  any  case  that  publisher  went 
bankrupt  soon  after. 

Crabbe  has  been  reproached  for  having 
continually  attempted  to  secure  a  "patron" 
at  this  time,  and  it  has  been  hinted  by  Sir  Leslie 
Stephen  that  he  ought  to  have  recognized  that 
the  patron  was  out  of  date,  killed  by  Dr.  John- 
son's sturdy  defiance.  I  do  not  agree  with  this 
view.  Dr.  Johnson,  in  spite  of  his  famous  epi- 
gram, was  always  more  or  less  assisted  by  the 
patron,  although  his  personality  was  strong 
enough  to  enable  him  to  turn  the  tables  at  the 
end.  When  one  comes  to  think  of  it,  Thrale  the 
brewer  was  a  patron  of  Johnson,  so  was  Strahan 
the  printer.  And  does  he  not  say  in  his  famous 
letter  to  Lord  Chesterfield  that  "  Seven  years,  my 


io8   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

lord,  have  now  passed  since  I  waited  in  your 
outward  rooms,  or  was  repulsed  from  your  door," 
clearly  implying  that  if  Chesterfield  was  not 
Johnson's  patron  it  was  not  the  great  Doctor's 
fault  ?  In  any  case  the  patron  must  always 
exist  for  the  poor  man  of  letters  in  every  age. 
Now,  he  is  frequently  a  collective  personality 
rather  than  an  individual.  He  is  represented  for 
the  author  who  has  tried  and  failed  by  the  Royal 
Literary  Fund,  by  such  bounty  as  is  awarded  by 
the  Society  of  Authors,  or  by  the  Civil  List  Grant. 
For  the  author  in  embryo  he  is  assisted  above 
all  by  the  literary  log-roller  who  flourishes  so 
much  in  our  day.  If  he  is  not  this  "  collective 
personality,"  or  one  of  the  others  I  have  named, 
then  he  is  something  much  worse — that  is,  a 
capitalist  publisher.  We  can  none  of  us  who 
have  to  earn  a  living  run  away  from  the  patronage 
of  capital,  and  when  Sir  Leslie  Stephen  was  being 
paid  a  salary  by  the  late  Mr.  George  Smith  for 
editing  the  Dictionary  of  National  Biography,  and 
was  told,  as  we  remember  that  he  frequently 
was,  that  it  was  not  a  remunerative  venture  and 
that,  as  Mr.  Smith  was  fond  of  saying,  his  pub- 
lishing business  did  not  pay  for  his  vineries,  Sir 


GEORGE  CRABBE  109 

Leslie  Stephen  was  experiencing  a  patronage,  if 
he  had  known  it,  not  less  melancholy  than 
anything  Crabbe  suffered  from  Edmund  Burke 
or  the  Duke  of  Rutland. 

When  one  meets  a  writer  who  desires  to  walk 
on  high  stilts  and  to  talk  of  the  indepen- 
dence of  literature,  one  is  entitled  to  ask  him  if 
it  was  a  greater  indignity  for  Lord  Tennyson 
in  his  younger  days  to  have  received  £200 
a  year  from  the  Civil  List  than  for  Crabbe 
to  have  received  the  same  sum  as  the  Duke 
of  Rutland's  chaplain  ;  in  fact,  Crabbe  earned 
the  money,  and  Tennyson  did  not.  There  are,  as 
I  have  said,  some  most  wonderful  and  pathetic 
touches  in  the  account  of  Crabbe's  attempt  to 
conquer  London.  There  are  his  letters  to  his 
sweetheart,  for  example,  his  "  dearest  Mira,"  in 
one  of  which  he  says  that  he  is  possessed  of  6%d. 
in  the  world.  In  another  he  relates  that  he  has 
sold  his  surgical  instruments  in  order  to  pay  his 
bills.  Nevertheless,  we  find  him  standing  at  a 
bookstall  where  he  sees  Dryden's  works  in  three 
volumes,  octavo,  for  five  shillings,  and  of  his 
few  shillings  he  ventures  to  offer  $s.  6d. — and 
carries  home  the  Dryden.  What  bibliophile  but 


i  io  TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

must  love   such  a    story  as    that,  even   though 
a   day  or  two  afterwards  its  hero  writes,  "  My 
last  shilling  became  Sd.  yesterday."     But  what 
a  good  investment  withal.     Dryden  made  him 
a  much  better  poet.     Then  comes  the  famous 
letter  to  Burke,  and  the  less  known  second  letter 
to  which  I  have  referred,  and  Burke's  splendid 
reception  of  the  writer.     Nothing,  I   repeat,  in 
the  life  of  any  great  man  is  more  beautiful  than 
that.     As  Crabbe's  son  finely  says  :  "  He  went  in 
Burke's  room  a  poor  young  adventurer,  spurned 
by  the  opulent  and  rejected  by  the  publishers, 
his  last  shilling  gone,  and  his  last  hope  with  it. 
He  came  out  virtually  secure  of  almost  all  the 
good  fortune  that  by  successive  stages  afterwards 
fell  to  his  lot."     The  success  that  comes  to  most 
men  is  built  up  on  such  chances,  on  the  kind 
help  of  some  one  or  other  individual. 

Finally  there  came — for  I  am  hastily  recapitu- 
lating Crabbe's  story — the  years  of  prosperity, 
curacies,  rectories,  the  praise  of  great  contempo- 
raries, but  nothing  surely  more  edifying  than 
the  burning  of  piles  of  manuscripts  so  extensive 
that  no  fireplace  would  hold  them.  The  son's 
account  of  his  assisting  at  these  conflagrations  is 


GEORGE  CRABBE  in 

not  the  least   interesting   part  of  his  biography, 
the  merits  of  which  I  desire  to  emphasize. 

People  who  make  jokes  about  that  most  succu- 
lent edible,  the  crab,  when  the  poet  Crabbe  is 
mentioned  in  their  presence — and  who  can  resist 
an  obvious  pun — are  not  really  far  astray.     There 
can  be  little  doubt  but  that  a  remote  ancestor  of 
George  Crabbe  took  his  name  from  the  "  shell- 
fish," as  we  all  persist,  in  spite  of  the  naturalist, 
in  calling  it ;    and  the  poet  did  not  hesitate  to 
attribute  it  to  the  vanity  of  an  ancestor  that  his 
name  had  had  two  letters  added.     Nor  when  we 
hear  of  Cromer  crabs,  or  crabs  from  some  other 
part  of  Norfolk  as  distinct  from  what  I  am  sure 
is  equally  palatable,  the  crustacean  as  it  may  be 
found  in  Aldeburgh,   are  we  remote   from  the 
story  of  our  poet's  life.     For  there  cannot  be  a 
doubt    but    that    Norfolk    shares    with    Suffolk 
the  glory  of  his  origin.     His  family,  it  is  clear, 
came  first  from  Norfolk.     The  Crabbes  of  Nor- 
folk were  farmers,  the  Crabbes  of  Suffolk  always 
favoured  the  seacoast,  and  all  the  glory  that  sur- 
rounds the  name  of  the  poet  to  whom  we  do 
honour  to-day  is  reflected  in  the  town  in  which 
he  was  born  and  bred.     Aldeburgh  is  Crabbe's 


ii2   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

own  town,  and  it  is  an  interesting  fact  that  no 
other  poet  can  be  identified  with  one  particular 
spot  in  the  way  in  which  Crabbe  can  be  identified 
with  this  beautiful  watering-place  in  which  we 
are  now  assembled.  Shakspere  was  more  of  a 
Londoner  than  a  Stratfordian  ;  nearly  all  his 
best  work  was  written  in  London,  and  many  of 
the  most  receptive  years  of  his  life  were  spent  in 
that  city.  Milton's  honoured  name  is  identified 
with  many  places,  apart  from  London,  the  city 
of  his  birth.  Shelley,  Byron  and  Keats  were 
essentially  cosmopolitans  in  their  writings  as  in 
their  lives.  Wordsworth  was  closely  identified 
with  Grasmere,  although  born  in  a  neighbouring 
county ;  but  he  went  to  many  and  varied  scenes, 
and  to  more  than  one  country,  for  some  of  his 
most  inspired  verses  Then  Cowper,  the  poet 
of  whom  one  most  often  thinks  when  one  is 
recalling  the  achievement  of  Crabbe,  is  a  poet  of 
some  half-dozen  places  other  than  Olney,  and 
perhaps  his  best  verses  were  written  at  Weston- 
Underwood.  Now  George  Crabbe  in  the  years 
of  his  success  was  identified  with  many  places 
other  than  Aldeburgh  :  with  Belvoir  Castle,  with 
Muston,  and  with  Trowbridge,  where  he  died, 


GEORGE  CRABBE  113 

and  some  of  his  admirers  have  even  identified 
him  with  Bath.  When  all  this  is  allowed,  it  is 
upon  Aldeburgh  that  the  whole  of  his  writings 
turned,  the  place  where  he  was  born,  where  he 
spent  his  boyhood,  and  the  earlier  years  of  a 
perhaps  too  sordid  manhood,  whither  he  returned 
twice,  as  a  chemist's  assistant  and  as  curate.  It 
is  the  place  that  primarily  inspired  all  his  verses. 
Aldeburgh  stands  out^vividly  before  us  in  each  suc- 
ceeding poem — in  The  Village.  The  Borough,  The 
Parish  Register,  The  Tales,  and  even  in  those 
Tales  of  the  Hall,  composed  in  later  life  in  far- 
away Trowbridge.  Crabbe's  vivid  observations 
indeed  come  home  to  every  one  who  has  studied 
his  works  when  they  have  visited  not  only  Alde- 
burgh but  its  vicinity.  Every  reach  of  the  river 
Aid  recalls  some  striking  line  by  him :  the  scenery 
in  The  Lover's  Journey  we  know  is  a  description 
of  the  road  between] Aldeburgh  and  Beccles,  and  all 
who  have  sailed  along  the  river  to  Orford  have 
recognized  that  no  stream  has  been  so  perfectly 
portrayed  by  a  poet's  pen.  Here  in  his  writings 
you  may  have  a  suggestion  of  Muston,  here  of 
Allington,  and  here  again  of  Trowbridge ;  but 
in  the  main  it  is  the  Suffolk  scenery  that  most 
i,"t  8 


ii4  TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

of  us  here  know    so  well  that  was  ever  in  his 
mind. 

When  an  attempt  was  once  made  to  stir 
up  the  Great  Eastern  Railway  to  identify 
this  district  with  the  name  of  Crabbe  as 
the  English  Lakes  were  identified  with  the 
name  of  Wordsworth,  and  the  Scots  Lakes 
with  that  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  a  high 
official  of  the  railway  made  the  statement  that 
up  to  that  moment  he  had  never  even  heard 
the  name  of  Crabbe.  Well,  all  that  is  going  to 
be  changed.  I  do  not  at  all  approve  of  the 
phrase  beloved  of  certain  book-makers  and  of 
railway  companies  that  implies  that  any  county 
or  district  is  the  monopoly  of  one  man,  be  he 
ever  so  great  a  writer.  Yet  I  venture  to  say 
that  within  the  next  ten  years  the  "  Crabbe 
Country  "  will  sound  as  familiar  to  the  officials 
of  the  Great  Eastern  as  the  "  Wordsworth  Coun- 
try "  does  to  those  of  the  Midland  or  the  North 
Western.  It  is  true  that  once  in  the  bitterness 
of  his  heart  the  poet  referred  to  Aldeburgh  as 
"  a  little  venal  borough  in  Suffolk  "  and  that  he 
more  than  once  alluded  to  his  unkind  reception 
upon  his  reappearance  as  a  curate,  when  he  had 


GEORGE  CRABBE  115 

previously  failed  at  other  callings.  "  In  my 
own  village  they  think  nothing  of  me,"  he 
once  said.  But  who  does  not  know  how  the 
heart  turns  with  the  years  to  the  places  associated 
with  childhood  and  youth,  and  Crabbe  was  a 
remarkable  exemplification  of  this.  A  well-known 
literary  journal  stated  only  last  week  that 
"  Crabbe's  connexion  with  Aldeburgh  was  not 
very  protracted."  So  far  from  this  being  true 
it  would  be  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  it  extended 
over  the  whole  of  his  seventy-eight  years  of  life. 
It  included  the  first  five-and-twenty  years  almost 
entirely.  It  included  also  the  brief  curacy,  the 
prolonged  residence  at  Parham  and  Glenham, 
frequent  visits  for  holidays  in  after  years,  and 
who  but  a  lover  of  his  native  place  would  have 
done  as  his  son  pictures  him  doing  when  at 
Stathern — riding  alone  to  the  coast  of  Lincoln- 
shire, sixty  miles  from  where  he  was  living,  only 
to  dip  in  the  waves  that  also  washed  the  beach  of 
Aldeburgh  and  returned  immediately  to  his  home. 
"  There  is  no  sea  like  the  Aldeburgh  sea,"  said 
Edward  FitzGerald,  and  we  may  be  sure  that 
was  Crabbe's  opinion  also,  for  revisiting  it  in 
later  life  he  wrote  : — 


ii6   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

There  once  again,  my  native  place  I  come 
Thee  to  salute,  my  earliest,  latest  home. 

One  picture  in  Crabbe's  life  stands  out  vividly 
to  us  all — the  long  years  of  devotion  given  by 
him  to  Sarah  Elmy,  and  the  reciprocal  devotion 
of  the  very  capable  woman  who  finally  became 
his  wife.  Crabbe's  courtship  and  marriage  affords 
a  pleasant  contrast  to  the  usual  unhappy  relations 
of  poets  with  their  wives.  Shakspere,  Milton, 
Dryden,  Byron,  Shelley,  and  many  another  poet 
was  less  happy  in  this  respect,  and  I  am  not  sure 
how  far  the  belief  in  Crabbe's  powers  as  a  poet 
has  been  affected  by  the  fact  that  he  lived  on 
the  whole  a  happy,  humdrum  married  life.  The 
public  has  so  long  been  accustomed  to  expect  a 
different  state  of  things. 

I  have  given  thus  much  time  to  Crabbe's  life 
story  because  it  interests  me,  and  I  do  not  believe 
that  it  is  possible  nowadays  to  kindle  a  very 
profound  interest  in  any  writer  without  a  definite 
presentation  of  his  personality.  Apart  from  his 
biography — his  three  biographies  by  George 
Crabbe  the  second,  Mr.  T.  E.  Kebbel,  and  Canon 
Ainger,  there  are  the  seven  volumes  of  his  works* 
Now  I  do  not  imagine  that  any  great  accession  will 


GEORGE  CRABBE  117 

be  made  to  the  ranks  of  Crabbe's  admirers  by  ask- 
ing people  to  take  down  these  seven  volumes  and 
read  them  right  through — a  thing  I  have  myself 
done  twice,  and  many  here  also  I  doubt  not. 
Rather  would  I  plead  for  a  reprint  of  Edmund 
FitzGerald's  Selections,  or  failing  that  I  would 
ask  you  to  look  at  the  volume  of  Selections  made 
by  Mr.  Bernard  Holland,  or  that  other  admirable 
selection  by  the  Rev.  Anthony  Deane.  "  I 
must  think  my  old  Crabbe  will  come  up  again, 
though  never  to  be  popular,"  wrote  FitzGerald 
to  Archbishop  Trench.  Well,  perhaps  the  "large 
still  books"  of  the  older  writers  are  never  destined 
to  be  popular  again,  but  they  will  always  main- 
tain with  genuine  book  lovers  their  place  in 
English  Literature,  and  if  the  adequate  praise 
they  have  received  from  many  good  judges  is 
well  kept  to  the  front  there  will  be  constant 
accessions  to  the  ranks,  and  readers  will  want  the 
whole  of  Crabbe's  works  in  which  to  dig  for 
themselves.  Crabbe's  place  in  English  Literature 
needed  not  such  a  gathering  as  this  to  make  it 
secure,  but  we  want  celebrations  of  our  literary 
heroes  to  keep  alive  enthusiasm,  and  to  en- 
courage the  faint-hearted. 


ii8   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

In  the  glorious  tradition  of  English  Literature, 
then,   Crabbe   comes   after   Cowper   and  before 
Wordsworth.     There  is  a  lineal  descent  as  clear 
and  well-defined  as  any  set  forth  in  the  peerages 
of  "  Burke  "  or  "  Debrett."    We  read  in  vain 
if  we  do  not  fully  grasp  the  continuity  of  creative 
work.     Cowper   was   born   in    1731,    Crabbe   in 
1754,  and   Cowper  was  called  to  the  Bar  in  the 
year  that    Crabbe   was   born.     In   spite  of  this 
disparity  of  years  they  started   upon  their  liter- 
ary   careers    almost    at    the    same    time.     The 
Pillage  was  published  in   1783,  and    The  Task 
in  1785,  yet  Cowper  is  in  every  sense  the  elder 
poet,  inheriting  more  closely  the  traditions   of 
Pope  and  Dryden,  coming  less  near  to  humanity 
than   Crabbe,   and   being   more   emphatically   a 
child  of  the  eighteenth  century  in  its  artificial 
aspects.     It    is    impossible    to    indict    a    whole 
century  with  all  its  varied  accomplishments,  and 
the   century  that  produced  Swift  and  Cowper 
and  Crabbe  had  no  lack  of  the  finer  instincts  of 
brotherhood.     Yet   the   century  was   essentially 
a  cruel  one.     Take  as  an  example  the  attitude  of 
naturally  kindly  men  to  the  hanging  of  Dr.  Dodd 
for    forgery.     Even     Samuel  Johnson,   who   did 


GEORGE  CRABBE  119 

what  he  could  for  Dodd,  did  not  find,  as  he  should 
have  done,  his  whole  soul  revolted  by  such  a 
punishment  for  a  crime  against  property.  Cow- 
per  has  immense  claim  upon  our  regard.  He 
is  one  of  the  truest  of  poets,  and  one  of  the 
most  interesting  figures  in  all  English  literature, 
although  no  small  share  of  his  one-time  popularity 
was  due  to  his  identification  with  Evangelicalism 
in  religion.  Cowper  had  humour  and  other 
qualities  which  enabled  him  to  make  the  uni- 
versal appeal  to  all  hearts  which  is  the  test  of  the 
greatest  literature — the  appeal  of  "John  Gilpin," 
the  "  Lines  "  to  his  Mother's  Portrait,  and  his 
verses  on  "  The  loss  of  the  Royal  George"  Crabbe 
made  no  such  appeal,  and  he  has  not  the 
adventitious  assistance  that  association  with  a 
religious  sect  affords.  Hence  the  popularity  he 
once  enjoyed  was  more  entirely  on  his  merits  than 
was  that  of  Cowper.  He  was  the  first  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  poets  who  was  able  to  see  things 
as  they  really  are.  Therein  lies  his  strength. 
Were  they  poets  at  all — those  earlier  eighteenth 
century  writers  ?  It  sounds  like  rank  blasphemy 
to  question  it,  but  what  is  poetry  ?  Surely  it 
is  the  expression  artistically  in  rhythmic  form — 


120   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

or  even  without  it — of  the  sincerest  emotions 
concerning  nature  and  life.  The  greatest  poet 
is  not  the  one  who  is  most  sincere — a  very  bad 
poet  can  be  that — but  the  poet  who  expresses  that 
sincerity  with  the  most  perfect  art.  From  this 
point  of  view  the  poets  before  Cowper  and  Crabbe, 
Pope,  Goldsmith,  Johnson  and  others  were 
scarcely  poets  at  all.  Masters  of  language  every 
one  of  them,  able  to  command  a  fine  rhetoric, 
but  not  poets.  Gray  in  two  or  three  pieces 
was  a  poet,  but  for  Johnson  that  claim  can 
scarcely  be  made.  Cowper  was  the  first  to 
emancipate  himself  from  the  conventionality  of 
his  age,  and  Crabbe  emancipated  himself  still 
further.  He  had  boundless  sincerity ,  and  he 
is  really  a  very  great  poet  even  if  he  has  not 
the  perfection  of  art  of  some  later  poets.  Many 
know  Crabbe  only  by  the  parody  of  his  manner 
in  Rejected  Addresses: 

John  Richard  William  Alexander  Dwyer 
Was  footman  to  Justinian  Stubbs  Esquire  ; 
But  when  John  Dwyer  listed  in  the  blues, 
Emanuel  Jennings  polished  Stubbs's  shoes. 

and  it  must  be  admitted  that  there  are  plenty 
of  lines  like  these  in  Crabbe,  as  for  example  : — 


GEORGE  CRABBE  121 

Grave  Jonas  Kindred,  Sybil  Kindred's  sire 
Was  six  feet  high,  and  looked  six  inches  higher. 

or  this  : — 

The  church  he  view'd  as  liberal  minds  will  view 
And  there  he  fixed  his  principles  and  pew. 

Banalities  of  this  kind  are  scattered  through  his 
pages  as  they  are  scattered  through  those  of 
Wordsworth.  Nevertheless  he  was  a  great  poet, 
bringing  us  before  Wordsworth  out  of  the  ruck 
of  artificiality  and  insincerity.  Does  any  one 
suppose  that  Pope  in  his  Essay  on  Man,  that 
Johnson  in  his  London  or  that  Goldsmith  in  his 
Deserted  Village  had  any  idea  other  than  the  pro- 
duction of  splendid  phrases.  Each,  and  all  of  them 
were  brilliant  men  of  letters.  Crabbe  was  not  a 
brilliant  man  of  letters,  but  he  was  a  fine  and  a 
genuine  poet.  You  will  look  in  vain  in  his  truest 
work  for  the  lyrical  and  musical  gift  that  we 
associate  with  poets  who  came  after  : — Shelley, 
Keats,  Tennyson — poets  who  made  Crabbe's 
work  quite  distasteful  for  some  three  generations. 
Crabbe  it  has  been  claimed  had  that  gift  also,  to 
be  found  in  "  Sir  Eustace  Grey  "  and  other  verses 
written  under  the  inspiration  of  opium,  as  much 


122  TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

of  Coleridge's  best  work  was  written — but  it 
is  not  in  these  that  his  admirers  will  seek  to 
emphasize  his  achievement — it  is  in  his  work 
which  treats  of 

The  simple  annals  of  my  parish  poor. 

The  Village,  The  Parish  Register,  The  Borough, 
and  many  of  the  Tales  bear  witness  to  a  clear 
vision  of  life  as  it  is  lived  by  the  majority  of  people 
born  into  this  world.  I  have  seen  criticism  of 
Crabbe  which  calls  him  the  poet  who  took  the 
middle  classes  for  his  subjects,  criticism  which  com- 
pared him  with  George  Eliot.  All  this  is  quite 
beside  the  mark.  Crabbe  is  pre-eminently  the 
poet  of  the  poor,  with  a  lesson  for  to-day  as  much 
as  for  a  century  ago.  Villages  are  not  now  what 
they  were  then,  we  are  told.  But  I  fully  believe 
that  there  are  all  the  conditions  of  life  to-day 
hidden  beneath  the  surface  as  Crabbe's  close 
observations  pictured  them.  "  The  altered  posi- 
tion of  the  poor,"  says  Mr.  Courthope,  "  has 
fortunately  deprived  his  poems  of  much  of  the 
reality  they  once  possessed."  I  do  not  believe  it. 
The  closely  packed  towns,  the  herding  together 
of  families,  the  squalor  are  still  to  be  found 


GEORGE  CRABBE  123 

in  our  midst.  Crabbe  has  his  message  for  our 
time  as  well  as  for  his  own.  How  he  tore  the 
veil  from  the  conventional  language  of  his 
day,  the  picture  of  the  ideal  village  where  the 
happy  peasantry  passed  through  life  so  joyously. 
Contrast  such  pictures  with  his  sad  declaration — 

I've  seldom  known,  though  I  have  often  read 
Of  happy  peasants  on  their  dying-bed. 

Solution  Crabbe  offers  none  for  the  tragedy  of 
poverty.  He  was  no  politician.  He  signed  the 
nomination  paper  for  John  Wilson  Croker  the 
Tory  in  his  native  Aldeburgh,  and  he  supported 
a  Whig  at  the  same  election  at  Trowbridge.  His 
politics  were  summed  up  in  backing  his  friends 
of  both  parties.  But  he  did  see,  as  politicians 
are  only  beginning  to  see  to-day,  that  the  ultimate 
solution  was  a  social  one  and  not  a  mere  question 
of  political  parties.  Generations  have  passed 
away  since  he  lived,  and  men  are  still  shouting 
themselves  hoarse  to  prove  that  in  this  Shibboleth 
or  in  that  may  be  found  the  salvation  of  the  coun- 
try, yet  we  have  still  our  thousands  on  the  verge 
of  starvation,  we  have  still  the  very  poor  in  our 
midst,  and  the  problem  seems  as  far  from  solution 


124   TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

as  ever.  But  it  would  be  all  the  better  for  the 
State  if  we  could  keep  the  questions  raised  by 
Crabbe  in  his  wonderful  pictures  more  continually 
in  view, — lacking  in  taste  as  they  may  sometimes 
seem  to  weak  stomachs,  coarse,  unvarnished 
narratives  though  they  be  of  a  life  which  is  really 
almost  entirely  sordid. 

Then  let  us  turn  to  Crabbe's  gallery  of  pictures. 
Phoebe  Dawson,  and  the  equally  pathetic  Ruth, 
Blaney  and  Clelia,  Peter  Grimes  and  many 
another.  They  are  as  clearly  defined  a  set  of 
entirely  human  beings  as  any  Master  has  given 
us.  It  is  not  assuredly  in  George  Eliot,  as 
Canon  Ainger  suggests,  that  I  find  an  affinity  to 
Crabbe  among  the  moderns,  but  in  two  much 
greater  writers  of  quite  different  texture,  Balzac 
and  Dickens.  Had  Crabbe  not  been  bounded 
and  restrained  by  the  conventions  of  his  cloth, 
he  might  have  become  one  of  the  most  popular 
story-tellers  in  our  literature  —  the  English 
Balzac.  At  a  hundred  points  Charles  Dickens 
is  an  entire  contrast  to  Crabbe — in  his  buoyant 
humour,  his  gaiety  of  heart,  in  the  glamour  that 
he  throws  over  the  life  of  the  poor,  a  glamour 
that  was  more  present  in  the  early  Victorian 


GEORGE  CRABBE  125 

era  than  in  our  own,  but  Crabbe  is  with  Balzac 
and  with  Dickens  in  that  he  presents  as  no  other 
moderns  have  done  living  pictures  of  suffering 
human  lives. 

There  is  yet  one  other  literary  force,  powerful 
in  our  day,  that  has  been  largely  influenced  by 
Crabbe.  Those  who  love  the  novels  of  Mr. 
Thomas  Hardy,  whom  we  rejoice  to  see  with  us 
at  this  Celebration, — his  Woodlanders,  The  Return 
of  the  Native,  Far  from  the  Madding  Crowd, 
and  many  another  book  that  touches  the  very 
heart  of  things  in  nature  and  human  life, 
will  rejoice  to  hear  that  this  great  writer  has 
admitted  George  Crabbe  to  be  the  most 
potent  influence  that  has  affected  his  work.  I 
have  heard  him  declare  many  times  how  much 
he  was  inspired  by  Crabbe,  whereas  the  later 
French  realists  had  no  influence  upon  him  what- 
ever. "  Crabbe  was  our  first  great  English 
realist  "  Mr.  Hardy  would  tell  you  if  only  we 
could  persuade  him  to  speak  from  this  plat- 
form, as  unfortunately  he  will  not. 

Lastly  let  us  take  Crabbe  as  a  great  story-teller. 
He  has  many  more  ideas  than  most  of  the  novel- 
ists. That  is  why  we  do  well  to  recall  the  hint 


126  TO  THE  IMMORTAL  MEMORY  OF 

of  the  writer  who  said  that  when  a  new  work 
came  out  we  should  take  down  an  old  one  from 
our  shelves.  Instead  of  the  "  un-idead  "  novels, 
that  come  out  by  the  dozen  and  are  so  popular. 
I  wish  we  could  agree  to  read  Crabbe's  novels  in 
verse.  Unhappily  their  form  is  against  them  in 
the  present  age.  But  it  would  not  be  at  all  a 
misfortune  if  we  could  make  Crabbe's  Tales  once 
more  the  vogue.  They  are  good  stories,  ab- 
sorbingly interesting.  They  leave  a  very  vivid 
impression  on  the  mind.  Once  read  they  are 
unforgettable. 

I  have  seen  it  stated  that  these  stories  are  old- 
fashioned  both  in  manner  and  in  substance.  In 
manner  they  may  be,  but  in  substance  I  maintain 
they  are  intensely  modern,  alive  with  the  spirit 
of  our  time.  Any  latter-day  novelist  might 
envy  Crabbe  his  power  of  developing  a  story. 
It  is  this  essential  modernity  that  is  to  make 
Crabbe's  place  in  English  literature  secure  for 
generations  yet  to  come. 

Finally,  Crabbe's  place  in  English  literature 
is  as  the  bridge  between  the  eighteenth  and 
nineteenth  century.  ^With  him  begins  that 
"  enthusiasm  of  humanity  "  which  the  eighteenth 


GEORGE  CRABBE  127 

century  so  imperfectly  understood.  Byron  and 
Wordsworth,  disliking  each  other  cordially,  did 
well  to  praise  him,  for  he  was  their  forerunner. 
A  master  of  pathos,  you  may  find  in  his  work 
incentive  to  tears  and  laughter,  although  some- 
times the  humour,  as  in  The  Learned  Boy,  is 
sadly  unconscious. 

But  I  must  bring  these  rambling  remarks 
to  a  close,  and  in  doing  so  I  must  once  again 
quote  that  other  Suffolk  worthy  to  whom 
many  of  us  are  very  much  attached,  I  mean 
Edward  FitzGerald.  When  Sir  Leslie  Stephen 
wrote  what  is  to  my  mind  a  singularly  infelici- 
tous essay  on  Crabbe  in  the  Cornhill,  he  quoted 
the  remark,  which  seemed  to  be  new  to  Fitz- 
Gerald, as  to  Crabbe  being  a  "pope  in  worsted 
stockings  " — a  remark  made  by  Horace  Smith  of 
Rejected  Addresses,  although  I  have  seen  it  ascribed 
to  Byron  and  others.  "  Pope  in  worsted  stock- 
ings," exclaimed  FitzGerald,  "  why  I  could 
cite  whole  paragraphs  of  as  fine  a  texture  as 
Moliere  ;  '  incapable  of  epigram,'  the  jackanapes 
says — why,  I  could  find  fifty  of  the  very  best 
epigrams  in  five  minutes,"  and  later,  in  another 
letter  he  writes — 


128  GEORGE   CRABBE 

I  am  positively  looking  over  my  everlasting  Crabbe 
again ;  he  naturally  comes  in  about  the  fall  of  the  year. 

Here  surely  is  an  appropriate  quotation,  a 
little  prophetic  perhaps,  for  our  gathering — 
the  "  everlasting  Crabbe."  We  cannot  all  love 
Crabbe  as  much  as  FitzGerald  loved  him,  but 
this  gathering  will  not  be  vain  if  after  this 
we  handle  his  volumes  more  lovingly,  read 
his  poems  more  sympathetically,  and  continue 
with  more  zeal  than  ever  before  to  be  proud 
of  the  man  who,  born  in  Aldeburgh  a  century 
and  a  half  ago,  is  closely  identified  with  this 
county  of  Suffolk  as  I  believe  no  other  great 
writer  is  closely  identified  with  any  county  in 
England.  An  Aldeburgh  man — a  Suffolk  man 
he  was — yet  even  more  in  the  future  than  in  the 
past,  he  is  destined  to  gain  the  whole  world  foi 
his  parish.  He  is  the  everlasting  Crabbe ! 


THE  LITERARY  ASSOCIATIONS 
OF  EAST    ANGLIA 


I.M. 


THE  LITERARY  ASSOCIATIONS  OF 
EAST  ANGLIA 

An  address  to  the  East  Anglian  Society  on  the  occasion 
of  a  dinner  to  !Mr.  William  Dutt,  author  of 
"  Highways  and  Byways  in  East  Anglia/'  March 
25,  1901. 

I  APPRECIATE  the  privilege  of  being  allowed  to 
speak  this  evening  for  a  few  minutes  upon  the 
literary  associations  of  East  Anglia,  of  being  per- 
mitted to  ask  you,  while  doing  honour  to  a  well- 
known  East  Anglian  writer  of  to-day,  to  cast  a 
glance  back  upon  the  literature  of  the  past  so  far 
as  it  affects  that  portion  of  the  British  Empire 
with  which  we  nearly  all  of  us  here  are  proud  to 
be  associated.  There  is  necessarily  some  differ- 
ence of  opinion  as  to  what  constitutes  East  Anglia. 
I  find  that  our  guest  of  to-night  tells  us  that  it 
is  "  Norfolk,  Suffolk  and  portions  of  Essex,  Cam- 
bridgeshire and  Lincolnshire."  Dr.  Knapp,  the 
biographer  of  Borrow,  says  that  it  is  Norfolk, 


131 


132  THE  LITERARY  ASSOCIATIONS  OF 

Suffolk  and  Cambridgeshire ;  personally  I  am 
content  with  that  classification,  because,  al- 
though I  was  born  in  London,  I  claim,  apart 
from  schoolboy  days  at  Downham  Market,  a 
pretty  lengthy  ancestry  from  Norwich  on  one 
side — which  is  indisputably  East  Anglia — and 
from  Welney,  near  Wisbeach,  on  another  side, 
and  Welney  and  Wisbeach  are,  I  affirm,  just 
as  much  East  Anglia  as  Norwich  and  Ipswich. 
With  reference  to  those  other  counties  and  por- 
tions of  counties,  I  think  that  the  inhabitants 
must  be  allowed  to  decide  for  themselves.  I 
imagine  that  they  will  give  every  possible  stretch 
to  the  imagination  in  order  to  allow  themselves 
the  honour  of  being  incorporated  in  East  Anglia, 
a  name  that  one  never  pronounces  without  recall- 
ing that  fine  old-world  compliment  of  St.  Augus- 
tine of  Canterbury  to  our  ancestors,  that  they 
ought  to  be  called  not  "  Angles  "  but  "  Angels." 
Every  one  in  particular  who  loves  books  must 
be  proud  to  partake  of  our  great  literary  tra- 
dition. If  it  is  difficult  to  decide  precisely  what 
East  Anglia  is,  it  is  perhaps  equally  difficult  to 
speak  for  a  few  minutes  on  so  colossal  a  theme 
as  the  literature  of  East  Anglia.  It  would  be 


EAST  ANGLIA  133 

easy  to  recapitulate  what  every  biographical 
dictionary  will  provide,  a  long  list  of  famous 
names  associated  with  our  counties;  to  remind 
you  that  we  have  produced  two  poet-laureates 
— John  Skelton,  of  Diss,  the  author  of  Colyn 
Cloute,  and  Thomas  Shadwell,  of  Broomhill,  the 
playwright — the  latter  perhaps  not  entirely  a 
subject  for  pride  ;  two  very  rough  and  ready 
political  philosophers,  Thomas  Paine,  born  at 
Thetford,  and  William  Godwin,  born  at  Wis- 
beach  ;  a  very  popular  novelist  in  Bulwer  Lytton, 
and  a  very  popular  theologian  in  Dr.  Samuel 
Clarke  ;  as  also  the  famous  brother  and  sister 
whose  works  appealed  to  totally  different  minds, 
James  and  Harriet  Martineau.  Then  there  was 
that  pathetic  creature  and  indifferent  poet, 
Robert  Bloomfield,  whose  Farmer's  Boy  once 
appeared  in  the  luxurious  glories  of  an  expen- 
sive quarto.  Finally,  one  recalls  that  two  of 
the  most  popular  women  writers  of  an  earlier 
generation,  Clara  Reeve,  the  novelist,  and  Agnes 
Strickland,  the  historian,  were  Suffolk  women. 

But  I  am  not  concerned  to  give  you  a  recapitu- 
lation of  all  the  East  Anglian  writers,  whose  names, 
as  I  have  said,  can  be  found  in  any  biographical 


134  THE  LITERARY  ASSOCIATIONS  OF 

dictionary,  and  the  quality  of  whose  work  would 
rather  suggest  that  East  Anglia,  from  a  literary 
point  of  view,  is  a  land  of  extinct  volcanoes.  I 
am  naturally  rather  anxious  to  make  use  of  the 
golden  opportunity  that  has  been  afforded  me 
to  emphasize  my  own  literary  sympathies,  and 
to  say  in  what  I  think  lies  the  glory  of  East  Anglia, 
at  least  so  far  as  the  creation  of  books  is  concerned. 
Here  I  make  an  interesting  claim  for  East  Anglia, 
that  it  has  given  us  in  Captain  Marryat  perhaps 
the  very  greatest  prose  writer  of  the  nineteenth 
century  who  has  been  a  delight  to  youth,  and  two 
of  the  very  greatest  prose  writers  of  all  times  for 
the  inspiration  of  middle-age,  Sir  Thomas  Browne 
and  George  Borrow.  It  has  given  us  in  Sarah 
Austin  an  example  of  a  learned  woman  who  was 
also  a  fascinating  woman  ;  it  has  given  us  again 
the  most  remarkable  letter-writers  in  the  Eng- 
lish language — Margaret  Paston,  Horace  Walpole 
and  Edward  FitzGerald.  To  these  there  were 
only  three  serious  rivals  as  letter-writers — William 
Cowper,  Thomas  Grey  and  Charles  Lamb ; 
and  the  first  found  a  final  home  and  a  last  rest- 
ing-place in  our  midst.  It  has  given  us  that 
remarkable  novelist  and  entertaining  diarist, 


EAST  ANGLIA  135 

Fanny  Burney.  Finally,  it  has  given  us  in 
that  same  William  Cowper — who  rests  in  East 
Dereham  Church,  and  for  whom  we  claim  on 
that  and  for  other  reasons  some  share  and  parti- 
cipation in  his  genius — a  great  and  much  loved 
poet.  It  has  given  us  indeed  in  William  Cowper 
and  George  Crabbe  the  two  most  natural  and 
the  two  most  human  poets  in  the  English  litera- 
ture of  two  centuries,  only  excepting  the  favourite 
poet  of  Scotland — Robert  Burns  It  is  to  these 
of  all  writers  that  I  would  pin  my  faith  in  talking 
of  East  Anglia  and  its  literature  ;  it  is  their  names 
that  I  would  have  you  keep  in  your  mind  when 
you  call  up  memories  of  the  literature  which 
has  most  inspired  our  East  Anglian  life. 

In  connexion  with  many  writers  a  point  of 
importance  will  occur  to  us.  Only  occasionally 
has  a  great  English  author  a  special  claim  on  one 
particular  portion  of  England.  He  has  not  been 
the  lesser  or  the  greater  for  that,  it  has  merely 
been  an  accident  of  his  birth  and  of  his  career. 
The  greatest  of  all  writers,  the  one  of  whom  all 
Englishmen  are  naturally  the  most  proud,  Shaks- 
pere,  has,  it  is  true,  an  abundant  association  with 
Warwickshire,  but  Shakspere  stands  almost  alone 


136  THE  LITERARY  ASSOCIATIONS  OF 

in  this,  as  in  many  things.  Chaucer,  Spenser, 
Milton,  Byron  and  Keats  were  born  in  London  ; 
they  travelled  widely,  they  lived  in  many  different 
counties  or  countries,  and  cannot  be  said  to  have 
adorned  any  distinctively  local  tradition.  Shelley 
was  born  in  Sussex,  but  a  hundred  cities,  including 
Rome,  where  his  ashes  rest,  may  claim  some  par- 
ticipation in  his  fine  spirit.  Wordsworth,  on 
the  other  hand,  who  was  born  in  Cumberland, 
certainly  obtained  the  greater  part  of  his  inspira- 
tion from  the  neighbouring  county  of  Westmor- 
land, where  his  life  was  passed.  But  when  we  come 
to  East  Anglia  we  are  face  to  face  with  a  body  of 
writers  who  belong  to  the  very  soil,  upon  whom 
the  particular  character  of  the  landscape  has  had 
a  permanent  effect,  who  are  not  only  very  great 
Englishmen  and  Englishwomen,  but  are  great 
East  Anglians  as  well. 

I  have  said  that  Captain  Marryat  was  an  East 
Anglian,  and  have  we  not  a  right  to  be  proud  of 
Marryat's  breezy  stories  of  the  sea  ?  Our  youth 
has  found  such  plentiful  stimulus  in  Peter  Sim-pie, 
Frank  Mildmay,  and  Mr.  Midshipman  Easy ; 
generations  of  boys  have  read  them  with  delight, 
generations  of  boys  will  read  them.  And  not 


EAST  ANGLIA  137 

only  boys,  but  men.  One  recalls  that  Carlyle, 
in  one  of  his  deepest  fits  of  depression,  took  refuge 
in  Marryat's  novels  with  infinite  advantage  to 
his  peace  of  mind.  Speaking  of  Captain  Marryat 
and  books  for  boys,  a  quite  minor  kind  of  litera- 
ture perhaps  some  of  you  may  think,  I  must 
recall  that  an  earlier  and  still  more  famous  story 
for  children  had  an  East  Anglian  origin.  Did 
not  The  Babes  in  the  Wood  come  out  of  Norfolk  ? 
Was  it  not  their  estate  in  that  county  that,  as  we 
learn  from  Percy's  Reliques,  their  wicked  uncle 
coveted,  and  were  not  the  last  hours  of  those 
unfortunate  children,  in  this  most  picturesque 
and  pathetic  of  stories,  solaced  by  East  Anglian 
robins  and  their  poor  bodies  covered  by  East 
Anglian  vegetation  ? 

Let  me  pass,  however,  to  what  may  be  counted 
more  serious  literature.  What  can  one  say  of 
Sir  Thomas  Browne  unless  indeed  one  has  an 
hour  in  which  to  say  it.  Every  page  of  that  great 
writer's  Religio  Medici  and  Urn  Burial  is  quotable 
— full  of  worldly  wisdom  and  of  an  inspiration 
that  is  not  of  the  world.  Browne  was  born  in 
London,  and  not  until  he  was  thirty-two  years 
of  age  did  he  settle  in  Norwich,  where  he  was 


138  THE  LITERARY  ASSOCIATIONS  OF 

"  much  resorted  to  for  his  skill  in  physic,"  and 
where  he  lived  for  forty-five  years,  when  the  fine 
church  of  St.  Peter  Mancroft,  received  his  ashes 
— a  church  in  which,  let  me  add,  with  pardon- 
able pride,  my  own  grandfather  and  grand- 
mother were  married.  I  am  glad  that  Norwich 
is  shortly  to  commemorate  by  a  fitting  monu- 
ment not  the  least  great  of  her  sons,  one  who 
has  been  aptly  called  "  the  English  Montaigne."  * 
Perhaps  there  are  those  who  would  dispute  my 
claim  for  Marryat  and  for  Sir  Thomas  Browne  that 
they  were  East  Anglians — both  were  only  East 
Anglians  by  adoption.  There  are  even  those 
who  dispute  the  claim  for  one  whom  I  must 
count  well-nigh  the  greatest  of  East  Anglian  men 
of  letters — George  Borrow.  Borrow,  I  main- 
tain, was  an  East  Anglian  if  ever  there  was 
one,  although  this  has  been  questioned  by 
Mr.  Theodore  Watts-Dunton.  Now  I  have 
the  greatest  possible  regard  for  Mr.  Watts- 
Dunton.  He  is  distinguished  alike  as  a  critic,  a 
poet,  and  a  romancer.  But  I  must  join  issue 

1  This  monument,  a  fine  statue  facing  the  house  which 
replaces  the  one  in  which  Sir  Thomas  Browne  lived,  was  un- 
veiled in  October,  1905. 


EAST  ANGLIA  139 

with  him  here,  and  you,  I  know,  will  forgive  me 
for  taking  up  your  time  with  the  matter;  for  if 
Mr.  Watts-Dunton  were  right,  one  of  the  chief 
glories  would  be  shorn  from  our  East  Anglian 
traditions.  He  denies  in  the  Introduction  to  a 
new  edition  of  The  Romany  Rye,  just  published, 
the  claim  of  Borrow  to  be  an  East  Anglian, 
although  Borrow  himself  insisted  that  he  was  one. 

One  might  as  well  call  Charlotte  Bronte  a  Yorkshire 
woman  as  call  Borrow  an  East  Anglian.  He  was  no 
more  an  East  Anglian  than  an  Irishman  born  in  London 
is  an  Englishman.  His  father  was  a  Cornishman  and  his 
mother  of  French  extraction.  Not  one  drop  of  East 
Anglian  blood  was  in  the  veins  of  Sorrow's  father,  and 
very  little  in  the  veins  of  his  mother.  Sorrow's  ancestry 
was  pure  Cornish  on  one  side,  and  on  the  other  mainly 
French.  But  such  was  the  egotism  of  Borrow  that  the 
fact  of  his  having  been  born  in  East  Anglia  made  him 
look  upon  that  part  of  the  world  as  the  very  hub  of  the 
universe. 

Well,  I  am  not  prepared  to  question  the  sug- 
gestion that  East  Anglia  is  the  hub  of  the  uni- 
verse, only  to  question  Mr.  Watts-Dunton's 
position.  There  is  virtue  in  that  qualification 
of  his  that  there  was  "  very  little  "  East  Anglian 
blood  in  the  veins  of  Borrow's  mother,  and  that 


140  THE  LITERARY  ASSOCIATIONS  OF 

she  was  "  mainly  "  French.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
she  was,  of  course,  partly  East  Anglian  ;  that  is  to 
say,  she  must  have  had  two  or  three  generations 
of  East  Anglian  blood  in  her,  seeing  that  it  was 
her  great-grandfather  who  settled  in  Norfolk 
from  France,  and  he  and  his  children  and  grand- 
children intermarried  with  the  race.  But  I 
do  not  pin  my  claim  for  Borrow  upon  that  fact 
— the  fact  of  three  generations  of  his  mother's 
family  at  Dumpling  Green — or  even  on  the  fact 
that  he  was  born  near  East  Dereham.  There  is 
nothing  more  certain  than  that  we  are  all  of  us 
influenced  greatly  by  our  environment,  and  that 
it  is  this,  quite  as  much  as  birth  or  ancestry,  that 
gives  us  what  characteristics  we  possess.  It  is  the 
custom,  for  example,  to  call  Swift  an  Irishman, 
whereas  Swift  came  of  English  parentage  and 
lived  for  many  of  his  most  impressionable  years  in 
England.  Nevertheless,  he  may  be  justly  claimed 
by  the  sister-island,  for  during  a  long  sojourn  in 
that  country  he  became  permeated  with  the 
subtle  influence  of  the  Irish  race,  and  in  many 
things  he  thought  and  felt  as  an  Irishman.  It 
is  the  custom  to  speak  of  Maria  Edgeworth  as  an 
Irish  novelist,  yet  Miss  Edgeworth  was  born  in 


EAST  ANGLIA  141 

England  of  English  parentage.  Nevertheless, 
she  was  quite  as  much  an  Irish  novelist  as  Charles 
Lever  and  Samuel  Lover,  for  all  her  life  was  spent 
in  direct  communion  with  the  Irish  race,  and  her 
books  were  Irish  books.  It  is,  on  the  other  hand, 
quite  unreasonable  to  deny  that  Charlotte  Bronte 
was  a  Yorkshire  woman.  Only  once  at  the  end 
of  her  life  did  she  visit  Ireland  for  a  few  weeks. 
Her  Irish  father  and  her  Cornish  mother  doubt- 
less influenced  her  nature  in  many  ways,  but  not 
less  certain  was  the  influence  of  those  wonderful 
moors  around  Haworth,  and  the  people  among 
whom  she  lived.  Neither  Ireland  nor  Cornwall 
has  as  much  right  to  claim  her  as  Yorkshire.  I 
am  the  last  to  disclaim  the  influence  of  what  is 
sometimes  called  "  Celticism "  upon  English 
literature  ;  upon  this  point  I  am  certain  that 
Matthew  Arnold  has  said  almost  the  last  word. 
The  Celts — not  necessarily  the  Irish,  as  there 
are  three  or  four  races  of  Celts  in  addition  to  the 
Irish — have  in  the  main  given  English  literature 
its  fine  imaginative  quality,  and  even  where  he 
cannot  trace  a  Celtic  origin  to  an  English  writer 
we  may  fairly  assume  that  there  is  Celtic  blood 
somewhere  in  an  earlier  generation. 


Nevertheless,  the  impressions,  as  I  have  said, 
derived  from  environment  are  of  the  utmost 
vitality,  and  assuredly  Borrow  was  an  East  Anglian, 
as  Sir  Thomas  Browne  was  an  East  Anglian.  In 
each  writer  you  can  trace  the  influence  of  our 
soil  in  a  peculiar  degree,  and  particularly  in  Bor- 
row. Borrow  was  proud  of  being  an  East  Anglian, 
and  we  are  proud  of  him.  In  Lavengro^  I 
venture  to  assert,  we  have  the  greatest  example 
of  prose  style  in  our  modern  literature,  and  I 
rejoice  to  see  a  growing  Borrow  cult,  a  cult  that 
is  based  not  on  an  acceptance  of  the  narrower 
side  of  Borrow — his  furious  ultra-Protestantism, 
for  example — as  was  the  popularity  that  he  once 
enjoyed,  but  upon  the  fact  that  he  was  a  magnifi- 
cent artist  in  words.  No  artist  in  words  but  is 
influenced  by  environment.  Charles  Kingsley, 
for  example,  who  came  from  quite  different 
surroundings,  was  profoundly  influenced  by  the 
East  Anglian  fen-country  : — 

"  They  have  a  beauty  of  their  own,  those  great  fens," 
he  said,  "  a  beauty  of  the  sea,  of  boundless  expanse  and 
freedom.  Overhead  the  arch  of  heaven  spreads  more 
ample  than  elsewhere,  and  that  vastness  gives  such  cloud- 
lands,  such  sunrises,  such  sunsets,  as  can  be  seen  nowhere 
else  within  these  isles." 


EAST  ANGLIA  143 

But  I  must  hasten  on,  although  I  would  fain 
tarry  long  over  George  Borrow  and  his  works.  I 
have  said  that  East  Anglia  is  the  country  of  great 
letter  writers.  First,  there  was  Margaret  Paston. 
There  is  no  such  contribution  to  a  remote  period 
of  English  history  as  that  contained  in  the  Pas- 
ton  Letters,  and  I  think  we  must  associate  them 
with  the  name  of  a  woman — Margaret  Paston. 
Margaret's  husband,  John  Paston  ;  her  son,  Sir 
John  Paston ;  and  her  second  son,  who,  strangely 
enough,  was  also  a  John,  and  called  himself 
"  John  Paston  the  Youngest,"  come  frequently 
before  us  in  the  correspondence,  but  Margaret 
Paston  is  the  central  figure. 

It  may  not  be  without  interest  to  some  of  my 
hearers  who  are  married  to  recall  that  Margaret 
Paston  addresses  her  husband  not  as  "  Dear 
John,"  or  "  My  dear  John,"  as  I  imagine  a 
a  wife  of  to-day  would  do,  but  as  "  Right  Rever- 
end and  Worshipful  Husband."  Nowhere  is 
there  such  a  vivid  picture  of  a  bygone  age  as 
that  contained  in  these  Paston  Letters.  We  who 
sit  quietly  by  the  hearth  in  the  reign  of  King 
Edward  VII  may  read  what  it  meant  to  live  by  the 
hearth  in  the  reign  of  King  Edward  IV.  It  is 


144  THE  LITERARY  ASSOCIATIONS  OF 

curious  that  the  most  humane  documents  of  far-off 
times  in  our  history  should  all  come  from  East 
Anglia,  not  only  those  Paston  Letters,  brimful  of 
the  most  vital  interest  concerning  the  reigns  of 
Henry  VI  and  Edward  IV,  but  also  an  even  earlier 
period — the  life,  or  at  least  the  monastic  life  in 
the  time  of  the  first  Richard  and  of  King  John 
is  in  a  most  extraordinarily  human  fashion  mirrored 
for  us  in  that  Chronicle  of  St.  Edmund's  Bury 
Monastery  known  as  the  Jocelyn  Chronicle,  pub- 
lished by  the  Camden  Society,  which  Carlyle 
has  vitalized  so  superbly  for  us  in  Past  and  Present. 
But  I  was  speaking  of  the  great  letter  writers, 
commencing  with  Margaret  Paston.  Who  are 
our  greatest  letter  writers  ?  Undoubtedly  they 
are  Horace  Walpole,  William  Cowper  and  Edward 
FitzGerald.  You  know  what  a  superb  picture 
of  eighteenth  century  life  has  been  presented  to 
us  in  the  nine  volumes  of  correspondence  we 
have  by  Horace  Walpole.1  Walpole  was  to  all 
practical  purposes  an  East  Anglian,  although  he 

1  For  every  student  Cunningham's  nine  volumes  have  been 
superseded  since  this  Address  was  delivered  by  the  sixteen 
volumes  of  the  Letters  of  Horace  Walpole,  edited  by  Mrs. 
Paget  Toynbee  for  the  Clarendon  Press. 


EAST  ANGLIA  145 

happened  to  be  born  in  London.  His  father, 
the  great  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  was  a  notable  East 
Anglian,  and  he  had  the  closest  ties  of  birth  and 
association  with  East  Anglia.  Many  of  his 
letters  were  written  from  the  family  mansion  6* 
Houghton.1 

Next  in  order  comes  William  Cowper.  I  be- 
lieve that  more  than  one  literary  historian  has 
claimed  Cowper  as  a  Norfolk  man.  Cowper 
was  born  in  Hertfordshire  ;  he  lived  for  a  very 
great  deal  of  his  life  in  Olney,  in  Bucking- 
hamshire, in  London  and  in  Huntingdon,  but 
if  ever  there  was  a  man  who  took  on  the  texture 
of  East  Anglian  scenery  and  East  Anglian  life  it 
was  Cowper.  That  beautiful  river,  the  Ouse, 
which  empties  itself  into  the  Wash,  was  a  peculiar 
inspiration  to  Cowper,  and  those  who  know  the 
scenery  of  Olney  know  that  it  has  conditions  exactly 

1  The  other  side  of  the  picture  may,  however,  be  presented. 
Horace,  says  Cunningham  (Walpole's  Letters,  vol.  i.),  hated 
Norfolk,  the  native  country  of  his  father,  and  delighted  in  Kent, 
the  native  country  of  his  mother.  "  He  did  not  care  for  Norfolk 
ale,  Norfolk  turnips,  Norfolk  dumplings  and  Norfolk  turkeys. 
Its  flat,  sandy  aguish  scenery  was  not  to  his  taste."  He  dearly 
liked  what  he  calls  most  happily,  "  the  rich,  blue  prospects 
of  Kent." 


I.M. 


10 


146  THE  LITERARY  ASSOCIATIONS  OF 

analogous  in  every  way  to  those  of  East  Anglia. 
One  of  Cowper's  most  beautiful  poems  is  entitled 
"  On  Receipt  of  my  Mother's  Portrait  out  of 
Norfolk,"  and  he  himself,  as  I  have  said,  found 
his  last  resting-place  on  East  Anglian  soil — at  East 
Dereham. 

If  there  may  be  some  doubt  about  Cowper, 
there  can  be  none  whatever  about  Edward  Fitz- 
Gerald,  the  greatest  letter-writer  of  recent  times. 
In  mentioning  the  name  of  FitzGerald  I  am  a 
little  diffident.  It  is  like  introducing  "  King 
Charles's  head  "  into  this  gathering  ;  for  was  he 
not  the  author  of  the  poem  known  to  all  of  us 
as  the  Rubaiyat  of  Omar  Khayyam.,  and  there  is 
no  small  tendency  to  smile  to-day  whenever 
the  name  of  Omar  Khayyam  is  mentioned  and 
to  call  the  cult  a  "  lunacy."  It  is  perhaps  un- 
fortunate that  FitzGerald  gave  that  somewhat 
formidable  title  to  his  paraphrase,  or  translation, 
of  the  old  Persian  poet.  It  is  not  the  fault  of 
those  who  admire  that  poem  exceedingly  that 
it  gives  them  a  suspicion  of  affecting  a  scholarship 
that  they  do  not  in  most  cases  possess.  What 
many  of  us  admire  is  not  Omar  Khayyam  the 
Persian,  nor  have  we  any  desire  to  see  or  to  know 


EAST  ANGLIA  147 

any  other  translation  of  that  poet.  We  simply 
admit  to  an  honest  appreciation  of  the  poem  by 
Edward  FitzGerald,  the  Suffolk  squire,  the  poem 
that  Tennyson  describes  as  "  the  one  thing  done 
divinely  well."  That  poem  by  FitzGerald  will 
live  as  long  as  the  English  language,  and  let  it 
never  be  forgotten  that  it  is  the  work  of  an  East 
Anglian,  an  East  Anglian  who,  like  Borrow, 
possessed  a  marked  Celtic  quality,  the  outcome 
of  a  famous  Irish  ancestry,  nevertheless  of  an  East 
Anglian  who  loved  its  soil,  its  rivers  and  its  sea. 
Then  I  come  to  another  phase  of  East  Anglian 
literary  traditions.  It  is  astonishing  what  a  zest 
for  learning  its  women  have  displayed  ;  I  might 
give  you  quite  a  long  list  of  distinguished  women 
who  have  come  out  of  East  Anglia.  Crabbe  must 
have  had  one  in  mind  when  he  wrote  of  Arabella 
in  one  of  his  Tales  : — 

This  reasoning  maid,  above  her  sex's  dread 
Had  dared  to  read,  and  dared  to  say  she  read, 
Not  the  last  novel,  not  the  new  born  play, 
Not  the  mere  trash  and  scandal  of  the  day ; 
But  (though  her  young  companions  felt  the  shock) 
She  studied  Berkeley,  Bacon,  Hobbes  and  Locke. 

The    one    who    perhaps    made    herself    most 


148  THE  LITERARY  ASSOCIATIONS  OF 

notorious  was  Harriet  Martineau,  and  in  spite 
of  her  disagreeable  egotism  it  is  still  a  pleasure 
to  read  some  of  her  less  controversial  writings. 
Her  Feats  on  the  Fiord,  for  example,  is  really  a 
classic.  But  I  can  never  quite  forgive  Harriet 
Martineau  in  that  she  spoke  contemptuously  of 
East  Anglian  scenery,  scenery  which  in  its  way 
has  charms  as  great  as  any  part  of  Europe  can 
offer.  No,  in  this  roll  of  famous  women,  the 
two  I  am  most  inclined  to  praise  are  Sarah 
Austin  and  Fanny  Burney.  Mrs.  Austin  was, 
you  will  remember,  one  of  the  Taylors  of  Nor- 
wich, married  to  John  Austin,  the  famous  jurist. 
She  was  one  of  the  first  to  demonstrate  that  her 
sex  might  have  other  gifts  than  a  gift  for  writing 
fiction,  and  that  it  was  possible  to  be  a  good, 
quiet,  domestic  woman,  and  at  the  same  time  an 
exceedingly  learned  one.  Even  before  Carlyle 
she  gave  a  vogue  to  the  study  of  German  literature 
in  this  country ;  she  wrote  many  books,  many 
articles,  and  made  some  translations,  notably 
what  is  still  the  best  translation  of  von  Ranke's 
History  of  the  Popes.  In  the  muster-roll  of  East 
Anglian  worthies  let  us  never  forget  this  singu- 
larly good  woman,  this  correspondent  of  all  the 


EAST  ANGLIA  149 

most  famous  men  of  her  day,  of  Guizot,  of  Grote, 
of  Gladstone,  and  one  who  also,  as  a  letter- 
writer,  showed  that  she  possessed  the  faculty 
that  seems,  as  I  have  said,  to  be  peculiar  to  the 
soil  of  East  Anglia.  Still  less  must  we  forget 
Fanny  Burney,  who,  born  in  King's  Lynn,  lived 
to  delight  her  own  generation  by  Evelina  and  by 
the  fascinating  Diary  that  gives  so  pleasant  a 
picture  of  Dr.  Johnson  and  many  another  of  her 
contemporaries.  Evelina  and  the  Diary  are  two 
of  my  favourite  books,  but  I  practise  self-restraint 
and  will  say  no  more  of  them  here. 

I  now  come  to  my  ninth,  and  last,  name 
among  those  East  Anglian  worthies  whom  I 
feel  that  we  have  a  particular  right  to  canonize — 
George  Crabbe — "  though  Nature's  sternest 
painter  yet  the  best,"  as  Byron  described  him. 
Now  it  may  be  frankly  admitted  that  few  of  us 
read  Crabbe  to-day.  He  has  an  acknowledged 
place  in  the  history  of  literature,  but  there  pretty 
well  even  well-read  people  are  content  to  leave 
him.  "  What  have  our  literary  critics  been 
about  that  they  have  suffered  such  a  writer  to 
drop  into  neglect  and  oblivion  ?  "  asks  a  recent 
Quarterly  Reviewer.  He  does  not  live  as  Cowper 


150  THE  LITERARY  ASSOCIATIONS  OF 

does  by  a  few  lyrics  and  ballads  and  by  incompar- 
able letters.  Scarcely  a  line  of  Crabbe  survives 
in  current  conversation.  If  you  turn  to  one 
of  those  handy  volumes  of  reference — Diction- 
aries of  Quotation,  as  they  are  called — from 
which  we  who  are  journalists  are  supposed  to 
obtain  most  of  the  literary  knowledge  that  we 
are  able  to  display  on  occasion,  you  will 
scarcely  find  a  dozen  lines  of  Crabbe.  And  yet 
I  venture  to  affirm  that  Crabbe  has  a  great 
and  permanent  place  in  literature,  and  that  as  he 
has  been  a  favourite  in  the  past,  he  will  become 
a  favourite  in  the  future.  Crabbe  can  never  lose 
his  place  in  the  history  of  literature,  a  place  as  the 
forerunner  of  Wordsworth  and  even  of  Cowper, 
but  it  would  be  a  tragedy  were  he  to  drop  out 
of  the  category  of  poets  that  are  read.  A 
dainty  little  edition  in  eight  volumes  is  among 
my  most  treasured  possessions.  I  have  read  it 
not  as  we  read  some  so-called  literature,  from  a 
sense  of  duty,  but  with  unqualified  interest. 
We  have  had  much  pure  realism  in  these  latter 
days ;  why  not  let  us  return  to  the  most  realistic 
of  the  poets.  He  was  beloved  by  all  the  greatest 
among  his  contemporaries.  Scott  and  Words- 


EAST  ANGLIA  151 

worth  were  devoted  to  his  work,  and  so  also  was 
Jane  Austen.  At  a  later  date  Tennyson  praised 
him.  We  have  heard  quite  recently  the  story 
of  Mr.  James  Russell  Lowell  in  his  last  illness 
finding  comfort  in  reading  Scott's  Rob  Roy.  Let 
us  turn  to  Scott's  own  last  illness  and  see  what 
was  the  book  he  most  enjoyed,  almost  on  his 
deathbed  : — 

"  Read  me  some  amusing  thing,"  said  Sir  Walter, 
"  read  me  a  bit  of  Crabbe."  "  I  brought  out  the  first 
volumes  of  his  old  favourite  that  I  could  lay  hand  on," 
says  Lockhart,  "  and  turned  to  what  I  remembered  was 
one  of  his  favourite  passages  in  it.  He  listened  with 
great  interest.  Every  now  and  then  he  exclaimed, 
u  Capital,  excellent,  excellent,  very  good." 

Cardinal  Newman  and  Edward  FitzGerald 
at  the  opposite  poles,  as  it  were,  of  religious  im- 
pressions, agree  in  a  devotion  to  Crabbe's  poetry. 
Cardinal  Newman  speaks  of  Tales  of  the  Hall  as 
"  a  poem  whether  in  conception  or  in  execution 
one  of  the  most  touching  in  our  language,"  and 
in  a  footnote  to  his  Idea  of  a  University  he  tells 
us  that  he  had  read  the  poem  thirty  years  earlier 
with  extreme  delight,  "  and  have  never  lost  my 


152  THE  LITERARY  ASSOCIATIONS  OF 

love  of  it,"  and  he  goes  on  to  plead  that  it  is  an 
absolute  classic. 

Not  to  have  read  Crabbe,  therefore,  is  not  to 
know  one  of  the  most  individual  in  the  glorious 
muster-roll  of  English  poets,  and  Crabbe  was  pre- 
eminently an  East  Anglian,  born  and  bred  in 
East  Anglia,  and  taking  in  a  peculiar  degree  the 
whole  character  of  his  environment,  as  only 
Shakspere,  Cowper  and  Wordsworth  among  our 
great  poets,  have  done. 

In  conclusion,  let  me  recapitulate  that  the 
names  of  Marryat,  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  George 
Borrow,  Margaret  Paston,  Horace  Walpole,  Sarah 
Austin,  Fanny  Burney,  Edward  FitzGerald,  and 
George  Crabbe  are  those  that  I  prefer  to  associate 
with  East  Anglian  Literature.  We  are  well  aware 
that  literature  is  but  an  aspect  of  our  many  claims 
on  the  gratitude  of  those  Englishmen  who  have 
not  the  good  fortune  to  be  East  Anglians.  We 
have  given  to  the  Empire  a  great  scholar  in  Porson, 
a  great  statesman  in  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  a  great 
lawyer  in  Sir  Edward  Coke,  great  ecclesiastics 
in  Cardinal  Wolsey  and  Archbishop  Parker,  great 
artists  in  Gainsborough,  Constable  and  Crome, 
and  perhaps  above  all  great  sailors  in  Sir  Cloudes- 


EAST  ANGLIA  153 

ley  Shovel  and  the  ever  memorable  Lord  Nelson. 
Personally  I  admire  a  certain  rebel,  Kett  the 
Tanner,  as  much  as  any  of  those  I  have  named. 
Of  all  these  East  Anglian  worthies  the  praise 
has  often  been  sung,  but  let  me  be  pardoned  if, 
on  an  occasion  like  this,  I  have  dwelt  rather 
at  length  on  the  less  familiar  association  of 
East  Anglia  with  letters.  That  I  have  but 
touched  the  fringe  of  the  subject  is  obvious. 
What  might  not  be  said,  for  example,  concerning 
Norwich  as  a  literary  centre  under  Bishop 
Stanley — the  Norwich  of  the  Taylors  and  the 
Gurneys,  possessed  of  as  much  real  intellectual 
life  as  London  can  boast  of  to-day.  What, 
again,  might  not  be  said  of  the  influence  upon 
writers  from  afar.  Read  Kingsley's  Hereward 
the  Wake,  Mr.  Swinburne's  Midsummer  Holiday, 
Charles  Dickens'  description  of  Yarmouth  and 
Goldsmith's  poetical  description  in  his  Deserted 
Village,  where  clearly  Houghton  was  intended.1 

1  Goldsmith  doubtless  had  more  than  one  experience  in 
his  mind  when  he  wrote  of  : — 

Sweet  Auburn  !  loveliest  village  of  the  plain. 

Lissoy,   near    Ballymahon,   Ireland,   served   to  provide   many 
concrete  features  of  the  picture,  but  that  the  author  drew  upon 


154  EAST  ANGLIA 

These,  and  a  host  of  other  memories  touch  the 
heart  of  all  good  East  Anglians,  but  that  East 
Anglians  do  not  forget  the  living  in  doing  honour 
to  the  dead  is  indicated  by  this  gathering  to- 
night. We  are  grateful  to  Dr.  Augustus  Jessopp, 
to  Mr.  Walter  Rye,  to  Mr.  Edward  Clodd,  and 
to  our  guest  of  this  evening,  Mr.  William  Dutt, 
for  keeping  alive  the  folk-lore,  the  literary  history, 
the  historical  tradition  of  that  portion  of  the 
British  Isles  to  which  we  feel  the  most  profound 
attachment  by  ties  of  residence  or  of  kinship. 

his  experiences  of  Houghton  is  believed  by  his  principal  bio- 
grapher, John  Forster,  by  Professor  Masson  and  others,  and  on 
no  other  assumption  than  that  of  an  English  village  can  the 
lines  be  explained  : — 

A  time  there  was,  ere  England's  griefs  began, 
When  every  rood  of  ground  maintained  its  man. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  ANCESTRY 


VI 


DR.   JOHNSON'S    ANCESTRY 

A  paper  read  before  the  members  of  the  Johnson  Club 
of  London  at  Simpson's  Restaurant  in  the  Strand. 

THERE  is,  I  believe,  a  definite  understanding 
among  our  members  that  we,  the  Brethren  of 
the  Johnson  Club,  have  each  and  all  of  us  read 
every  line  about  Dr.  Johnson  that  is  in  print,  to 
say  nothing  of  his  works.  It  is  particularly  accep- 
ted that  the  thirteen  volumes  in  which  our  late 
brother,  Dr.  Birkbeck  Hill,  enshrined  his  own 
appreciation  of  our  Great  Man,  are  as  familiar 
to  us  all  as  are  the  Bible  and  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer.  For  my  part,  with  a  deep  sense  of  the 
responsibility  that  must  belong  to  any  one  who 
has  rashly  undertaken  to  read  a  paper  before 
the  Club,  I  admit  to  having  supplemented 
these  thirteen  volumes  by  a  reperusal  of  the 
little  book  entitled  Johnson  Club  Papers,  by 
Various  Hands,  issued  in  1899  by  Brother 
Fisher  Unwin.  I  feel  as  I  reread  these  addresses 
that  there  were  indeed  giants  in  those  days, 


157 


158         DR.   JOHNSON'S   ANCESTRY 

although  my  admiration  was  moderated  a  little 
when  I  came  across  the  statement  of  one  Brother 
that  Johnson's  proposal  for  an  edition  of  Shak- 
spere  "  came  to  nothing  "  ;  and  the  statement 
of  another  that  "  Goldsmith's  failings  were  almost 
as  great  and  as  ridiculous  as  Boswell's  ; "  while 
my  bibliographical  ire  was  awakened  by  the 
extraordinary  declaration  in  an  article  on  "Dr. 
Johnson's  Library,"  that  a  first  folio  edition  of 
Shakspere  might  have  realized  ^250  in  the  year 
1785.  Still,  I  recognize  the  talent  that  illumi- 
nated the  Club  in  those  closing  years  of  the 
last  century.  Happily  for  us,  who  love  good 
comradeship,  most  of  the  giants  of  those  days 
are  still  in  evidence  with  their  polished  armour 
and  formidable  spears. 

What  can  I  possibly  say  that  has  not  already 
been  said  by  one  or  other  of  the  Brethren  ?  Well, 
I  have  put  together  these  few  remarks  in  the 
hopes  that  no  one  of  you  has  seen  two  books 
that  are  in  my  hands,  the  first,  The  Reades  of 
Blackwood  Hilly  with  Some  Account  of  Dr.  John- 
son's Ancestry,  by  Aleyn  Lyell  Reade  ;  the  other, 
The  Life  and  Letters  of  Dr.  Birkbeck  Hill,  by 
his  daughter  Mrs.  Crump.  The  first  of  these 


DR.    JOHNSON'S    ANCESTRY       159 

is  privately  printed,  although  it  may  be  bought 
by  any  one  of  the  Brethren  for  a  couple  of  guineas. 
As  far  as  I  am  able  to  learn.  Brother  Augustine 
Birrell  is  the  only  one  of  the  Brethren  who  has 
as  yet  purchased  a  copy.  The  other  book,  our 
Brother  Birkbeck  Hill's  biography,  is  to  be  issued 
next  week  by  Mr.  Edward  Arnold,  who  has 
kindly  placed  an  early  copy  at  my  disposal.  In 
both  these  volumes  there  is  much  food  for  reflec- 
tion for  all  good  Johnsonians.  Dr.  Johnson's 
ancestry,  it  may  be,  makes  little  appeal  to  the 
crowd,  but  it  will  to  the  Brethren.  There  is 
no  more  favourite  subject  for  satire  than  the 
tendency  to  minute  study  of  an  author  and  his 
antecedents.  But  the  lover  of  that  author  knows 
the  fascination  of  the  topic.  He  can  forgive 
any  amount  of  zeal.  I  confess  that  personally 
I  stand  amazed  at  the  variety  and  interest  of 
Mr.  Reade's  researches.  Let  me  take  a  sample 
case  of  his  method  before  coming  to  the  main 
issue.  In  the  opening  pages  of  Boswell's  Johnson 
there  is  some  account  of  Mr.  Michael  Johnson, 
the  father.  The  most  picturesque  anecdote 
told  of  Johnson  Senior  is  that  concerning  a 
young  woman  of  Leek  in  Staffordshire,  who 


160       DR.    JOHNSON'S    ANCESTRY 

while  he  served  his  apprenticeship  there  con- 
ceived a  passion  for  him,  which  he  did  not 
return.  •  She  followed  him  to  Lichfield,  where 
she  took  lodgings  opposite  to  the  house  in  which 
he  lived,  and  indulged  her  hopeless  flame.  Ulti- 
mately she  died  of  love  and  was  buried  in  the 
Cathedral  at  Lichfield,  when  Michael  Johnson 
put  a  stone  over  her  grave.  This  pathetic 
romance  has  gone  unchallenged  by  all  BoswelPs 
editors,  even  including  our  prince  of  editors, 
Dr.  Birkbeck  Hill.  Mr.  Reade,  it  seems  to  me, 
has  completely  shattered  the  story,  which,  as 
all  Johnsonian  students  know,  was  obtained 
by  Boswell  from  Miss  Anna  Seward.  Mr. 
Reade  is  able  to  show  that  Michael  Johnson  had 
been  settled  in  Lichfield  for  at  least  eleven  years 
before  the  death  of  Elizabeth  Blaney,  that 
for  five  years  she  had  been  the  much  appre- 
ciated domestic  in  a  household  in  that  city. 
Her  will  indicates  moreover  a  great  affection 
for  her  mistress  and  for  that  mistress's  son ; 
she  leaves  the  boy  a  gold  watch  and  his  mother 
the  rest  of  her  belongings.  The  only  connexion 
that  Michael  Johnson  would  seem  to  have  had 
with  the  woman  was  that  he  and  his  brother  were 


DR.   JOHNSON'S    ANCESTRY       161 

called  in  after  her  decease  to  make  an  inventory 
of  her  little  property.  I  think  that  these  little 
facts  about  Mistress  Blaney,  her  five  years'  resi- 
dence at  Lichfield  apparently  in  a  most  comfort- 
able position,  her  omission  of  Michael  Johnson 
from  her  will,  and  the  fact  that  he  had  been  in 
Lichfield  at  least  six  months  before  she  arrived, 
are  conclusive. 

There  is  another  picturesque  fact  about 
Michael  Johnson  that  Mr.  Reade  has  brought  to 
light.  It  would  seem  that  twenty  years  before  his 
marriage  to  Sarah  Ford,  he  had  been  on  the  eve 
of  marriage  to  a  young  woman  at  Derby,  Mary 
Neyld  ;  but  the  marriage  did  not  take  place, 
although  the  marriage  bond  was  drawn  out. 
Mary  was  the  daughter  of  Luke  Neyld,  a  promi- 
nent tradesman  of  Derby  ;  she  was  twenty-three 
years  of  age  at  the  time  and  Michael  twenty-nine. 
Even  Mr.  Reade's  industry  has  not  been  able  to 
discover  for  us  why  at  the  very  last  moment  the 
marriage  was  broken  off.  It  explains,  how- 
ever, why  Michael  Johnson  married  late  in 
life  and  his  melancholia.  The  human  romance 
that  Mr.  Reade  has  unveiled  has  surely  a  cer- 
tain interest  for  Johnsonians,  for  had  Michael 


162       DR.    JOHNSON'S    ANCESTRY 

Johnson  brought  his  first  love  affair  to  a  happy 
conclusion,  we  should  not  have  had  the  man 
described  twenty  years  later  as  "  possessed  of  a 
vile  melancholy,"  who,  when  his  wife's  tongue 
wagged  too  much,  got  upon  his  horse  and  rode 
away.  There  would  have  been  no  Samuel 
Johnson,  and  there  would  have  been  no  Johnson 
Club — a  catastrophe  which  the  human  mind 
finds  it  hard  to  conceive  of.  Two  years  after 
the  breaking  off  of  her  engagement  with  Michael 
Johnson,  I  may  add,  Mary  Neyld  married  one 
James  Warner. 

Mr.  Reade  also  calls  in  question  another 
statement  of  Boswell's,  that  Michael  Johnson 
was  really  apprenticed  at  Leek  in  Stafford- 
shire ;  our  only  authority  for  this  also  is  the 
excellent  Anna  Seward.  Further,  it  is  suffi- 
ciently curious  that  the  names  of  two  Samuel 
Johnsons  are  recorded  as  being  buried  in  one  of 
the  churches  at  Lichfield,  one  before  our  Samuel 
came  into  the  world,  the  other  three  years  later  : 
of  these,  one  died  in  1654,  tne  other  in  1712. 
But  these  points,  although  of  a  certain  interest, 
have  nothing  to  do  with  Dr.  Johnson's  ancestry. 

Now  before  we  left  our  homes  this  evening, 


DR.   JOHNSON'S  ANCESTRY         163 

each  member  of  the  Johnson  Brotherhood,  as 
is  his  custom,  turned  up  Brother  Birkbeck  Hill's 
invaluable  index  to  see  what  Johnson  had  to  say 
upon  the  subject  of  ancestry.  We  know  that 
the  Doctor  was  very  keen  upon  the  founding  of 
a  family  ;  that  when  Mr.  Thrale  lost  his  only 
son  Johnson's  sympathies  went  out  to  him  in  a 
double  way,  and  perhaps  in  the  greater  degree 
because  as  he  said  to  Boswell,  "  Sir,  don't  you 
know  how  you  yourself  think  ?  Sir,  he  wished 
to  propagate  his  name."  Johnson  himself,  Bos- 
well  tells  us,  had  no  pretensions  to  blood.  "  I 
here  may  say,"  he  said,  "  that  I  have  great 
merit  in  being  zealous  for  subordination  and 
the  honours  of  birth ;  for  I  can  hardly  tell 
who  was  my  grandfather."  Johnson  further 
informed  Mrs.  Thrale  that  he  did  not  delight 
in  talking  much  of  his  family  :  "  There  is  little 
pleasure,"  he  says,  "in  relating  the  anecdotes  of 
beggary."  He  constantly  deprecated  his  origin. 
According  to  Miss  Seward,  he  told  his  wife  before 
he  married  her  that  he  was  of  mean  extraction  ; 
but  the  letter  in  which  Miss  Seward  gives  her 
version  of  Johnson's  courtship  is  worth  recalling, 
although  I  do  not  believe  a  single  word  of  it : — 


164       DR.   JOHNSON'S  ANCESTRY 

The    rustic  prettiness    and   artless    manners  of    her 
daughter,  the  present  Mrs.  Lucy  Porter,  had  won  John- 
son's youthful  heart,  when  she  was  upon  a  visit  at  my 
grandfather's  in    Johnson's  school-days.     Disgusted    by 
his  unsightly  form,  she  had  a  personal  aversion  to  him, 
nor  could  the  beautiful  verses  he  addressed  to  her  teach 
her  to  endure  him.     The  nymph  at  length  returned  to 
her  parents   at   Birmingham,   and   was   soon   forgotten. 
Business  taking  Johnson  to  Birmingham  on  the  death  of 
his  own  father,  and  calling  upon  his  coy  mistress  there, 
he  found  her  father  dying.     He  passed  all  his  leisure 
hours  at  Mr.  Porter's,  attending  his  sick  bed,  and  in  a 
few  months  after  his  death,  asked  Mrs.  Johnson's  con- 
sent to  marry  the  old  widow.     After  expressing  her  sur- 
prise at  a  request  so  extraordinary — "  No,  Sam,  my  will- 
ing consent  you  will  never    have  to  so  preposterous  a 
union.     You   are   not   twenty-five,    and   she   is    turned 
fifty.     If  she  had  any  prudence,  this  request  had  never 
been  made  to  me.     Where  are  your  means  of  subsist- 
ence ?     Porter   has   died   poor,    in    consequence   of   his 
wife's  expensive  habits.     You  have  great  talents,  but, 
as  yet,  have  turned  them  into  no  profitable  channel." 
"  Mother,  I  have  not  deceived  Mrs.  Porter  :      I  have 
told  her  the  worst  of  me  ;    that  I  am  of   mean  extrac- 
tion ;    that  I  have  no  money,  and  that  I   have  had  an 
uncle   hanged.     She    replied,  that    she   valued    no    one 
more  or  less   for  his   descent ;    that   she   had   no   more 
money  than   myself ;    and  that,  although   she   had   not 
had  a  relation  hanged,  she  had  fifty  who  deserved  hang- 
ing." 


DR.   JOHNSON'S    ANCESTRY       165 

Now  why  did  Dr.  Johnson  take  this  attitude 
about  his  ancestry,  so  contrary  to  the  spirit  that 
guided  him  where  other  people's  genealogical 
trees  were  concerned  ?  It  was  certainly  not 
indifference  to  family  ties,  because  Brother  Birk- 
beck  Hill  publishes  many  interesting  letters 
written  by  Johnson  in  old  age,  when  finding  that 
he  had  a  certain  sum  of  money  to  bequeath,  he 
looked  around  to  see  if  there  were  any  of  his  own 
kin  living.  The  number  of  letters  the  old  man 
wrote,  inquiring  for  this  or  that  kinsman,  are 
quite  pathetic.  It  seems  to  me  that  it  was 
really  due  to  an  ignorant  vagueness  as  to  his 
family  history.  During  his  early  years  his  family 
had  passed  from  affluence  to  penury.  They 
were  of  a  type  very  common  in  England,  but 
very  rare  in  Scotland  and  Ireland,  that  take  no 
interest  whatever  in  pedigrees,  and  never  discuss 
any  but  their  immediate  relations,  with  whom, 
in  the  case  of  the  Johnsons,  very  friendly  terms 
did  not  prevail.  I  think  we  should  be  astonished 
if  we  were  to  go  into  some  shops  in  London  of 
sturdy  prosperous  tradesmen  in  quite  as  good  a 
position  as  old  Michael  Johnson,  and  were  to 
try  and  draw  out  one  or  other  individual  upon 


166      DR.    JOHNSON'S    ANCESTRY 

his  ancestry.     We  should  promptly  come  against 
a  blank  wall. 

What  then  do  we  know  of  Johnson's  father 
from  the  ordinary  sources  ?  That  he  was  a 
bookseller  at  Lichfield,  and  that  he  was  Sheriff 
of  that  city  in  the  year  that  his  son  Samuel  was 
born ;  that  he  feasted  the  citizens,  as  Johnson 
tells  us,  in  his  Annals,  with  "  uncommon  magnifi- 
cence." He  is  described  by  Johnson  as  "  a  foolish 
old  man,"  because  he  talked  with  too  fond  a 
pride  of  his  children  and  their  precocious  ways. 
He  was  a  zealous  High  Churchman  and  Jacobite. 
We  are  told  by  Boswell  further,  on  the  authority 
of  Mr.  Hector  of  Birmingham,  that  he  opened  a 
bookstall  once  a  week  in  that  city,  but  lost  money 
by  setting  up  as  a  maker  of  parchment.  "  A 
pious  and  most  worthy  man,"  Mrs.  Piozzi  tells 
us  of  him,  "  but  wrong-headed,  positive  and 
affected  with  melancholia."  "  I  inherited  a 
vile  melancholy  from  my  father,"  Johnson  tells 
us,  "  which  has  made  me  mad  all  my  life."  When 
he  died  in  1731  ^his  effects  were  estimated  at 
£20.  "  My  mother  had  no  value  for  his  rela- 
tions," Johnson  tells  us.  "  Those  we  knew  were 
much  lower  than  hers."  Of  Michael  Johnson's 


DR.   JOHNSON'S  ANCESTRY        167 

brother,  Andrew,  Johnson's  uncle,  we  know  still 
less.  From  the  various  Johnson  books  we  only 
cull  the  story  mentioned  in  Mrs.  Piozzi's 
Anecdotes.  She  relates  that  Johnson,  after  telling 
her  of  the  prowess  of  his  uncle,  Cornelius  Ford, 
at  jumping,  went  on  to  say  that  he  had  another 
uncle,  Andrew — "  my  father's  brother,  who  kept 
the  ring  at  Smithfield  for  a  whole  year,  and  was 
never  thrown  or  conquered.  Here  are  uncles 
for  you,  Mistress,  if  that  is  the  way  to  your  heart." 
Mr.  Reade  has  supplemented  this  by  showing 
us  that  not  only  was  Andrew  Johnson  a  skilful 
wrestler,  but  that  he  was  a  very  good  bookseller. 
For  a  time  he  assisted  his  brother  in  the  conduct 
of  the  business  at  Lichfield.  Later,  however, 
he  settled  as  a  bookseller  at  Birmingham,  which 
was  to  be  his  home  until  his  death  over  thirty 
years  later.  Here  he  published  some  interesting 
books ;  the  title-pages  of  some  of  these  are  given 
by  Mr.  Reade,  who  reproduces  of  course  his  will. 
He  had  a  son  named  Thomas  who  fell  on  evil 
days.  You  will  find  certain  letters  to  Thomas  in 
Birkbeck  Hill's  edition ;  Dr.  Johnson  frequently 
helped  him  with  money. 

Of    more    interest,    however,     than    Andrew 


168       DR.   JOHNSON'S    ANCESTRY 

Johnson  was  Catherine,  the  one  sister  of  Michael 
and  Andrew,  an  aunt  of  Samuel's,  who  was 
evidently  for  some  unknown  reason  ignored  by 
her  two  brothers.  Here  we  are  not  on  abso- 
lutely [firm  ground,  but  it  seems  to  me  clear 
that  Catherine  Johnson  married  into  a  position 
far  above  her  brothers.  A  fortnight  before  his 
death  Dr.  Johnson  wrote  to  the  Rev.  William 
Vyse,  Rector  of  Lambeth  ;  a  letter  in  which 
he  asked  him  to  find  out  "  whether  Charles 
Skrymsher  " — he  misspelt  it  "  Scrimshaw  " — "  of 
Woodseaves  " — he  misspelt  it  "  Woodease  " — "in 
your  neighbourhood,  be  now  alive,"  and  whether 
he  could  be  found  without  delay.  He  added 
that  "  it  will  be  an  act  of  great  kindness  to  me," 
Charles  Skrymsher  being  "  very  nearly  related." 
Charles  Skrymsher  was  not  found,  and  Johnson 
told  Dr.  Vyse  that  he  was  disappointed  in  the 
inquiries  that  he  had  made  for  his  relations. 
This  particular  relation,  indeed,  had  been  twenty- 
two  years  dead  when  Dr.  Johnson,  probably  with 
the  desire  of  leaving  him  something  in  his  will, 
made  these  inquiries.  His  mother,  Mrs.  Gerald 
Skrymsher,  was  Michael  Johnson's  sister.  One 
of  her  daughters  became  the  wife  of  Thomas 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  ANCESTRY       169 

Boothby.  Boothby  was  twice  married,  and  his 
two  wives  were  cousins,  the  first,  Elizabeth,  being 
the  daughter  of  one  Sir  Charles  Skrymsher,  the 
second,  Hester,  as  I  have  said,  of  Gerald  Skrym- 
sher, Dr.  Johnson's  uncle.  Hence  Johnson 
had  a  cousin  by  marriage  who  was  a  potentate 
in  his  day,  for  it  is  told  of  Thomas  Boothby  of 
Tooley  Park,  grand-nephew  of  a  powerful  and 
wealthy  baronet,  that  he  was  one  of  the  fathers 
of  English  sport.  An  issue  of  The  Field,  news- 
paper for  1875  contains  an  engraving  of  a  hunting 
horn  then  in  the  possession  of  the  late  Master  of 
the  Cheshire  Hounds,  and  upon  the  horn  is  the 
inscription  :  "  Thomas  Boothby,  Esq.,  Tooley 
Park,  Leicester.  With  this  horn  he  hunted  the 
first  pack  of  fox  hounds  then  in  England  fifty- 
five  years."  He  died  in  1752.  His  eldest  son 
took  the  maternal  name  of  Skrymsher,  and  under 
the  title  of  Thomas  Boothby  Skrymsher  became 
M.P.  for  Leicester,  and  an  important  person  in 
his  day.  His  wife  was  Anne,  daughter  of  Sir 
Hugh  Clopton  of  New  Place,  Stratford-on-Avon. 
Admirers  of  Mrs.  Gaskell  will  remember  the 
Clopton  legend  told  by  her  in  Howett's  Visits  to 
Remarkable  Places. 


i  ;o      DR.   JOHNSON'S    ANCESTRY 

I  wish  that  I  had  time  to  follow  Mr.  Reade 
through  all  the  ramifications  of  an  interesting 
family  history,  but  I  venture  to  think  that  there 
is  something  pathetic  in  Dr.  Johnson's  inquiries 
a  fortnight  before  his  death  as  to  cousins  of  whose 
life  story  he  knew  nothing,  whose  well-known 
family  home  of  Woodseaves  he — the  great  Lexico- 
grapher— could  not  spell  correctly,  and  of  whose 
very  name  he  was  imperfectly  informed.  Yet 
he,  the  lover  of  family  trees  and  of  ancestral 
associations,  was  all  his  life  in  ignorance  of  these 
wealthy  connexions  and  their  many  substantial 
intermarriages. 

Before  Mr.  Reade  it  was  known  that  Johnson's 
father  was  a  manufacturer  of  parchment  as  well 
as  a  bookseller  ;  but  it  was  supposed  that  only  in 
his  last  few  years  or  so  of  life  did  he  undertake 
this  occupation  which  ruined  him.  Mr.  Reade 
shows  that  he  had  been  for  thirty  years  engaged 
in  this  trade  in  parchment.  Brother  Birkbeck 
Hill  quotes  Croker,  who  hinted  that  Johnson's 
famous  definition  of  Excise  as  "  a  hateful  tax 
levied  upon  commodities,  and  adjudged  not  by 
the  Common  Judge  of  Property  but  by  wretches 
hired  by  those  to  whom  Excise  is  paid,"  was 


DR.   JOHNSON'S    ANCESTRY       171 

inspired  by  recollections  of  his  father's  constant 
disputes  with  the  Excise  officers.  Mr.  Reade 
has  unearthed  documents  concerning  the  crisis 
of  this  quarrel,  when  Michael  Johnson  in  1718 
was  indicted  "  for  useing  ye  Trade  of  a  Tanner." 
The  indictment,  which  is  here  printed  in  full, 
charges  him, "  one  Michael  Johnson,  bookseller," 
"  that  he  did  in  the  third  year  of  the  reign  of 
our  Lord  George  by  the  Grace  of  God  now  King 
of  Great  Britain,  for  his  own  proper  gain,  get  up, 
use  and  exercise  the  art,  mystery  or  manual  occu- 
pation of  a  Byrseus,  in  English  a  Tanner,  in  which 
art,  mystery  or  manual  occupation  of  a  Tanner 
the  said  Michael  Johnson  was  not  brought  up 
or  apprenticed  for  the  space  of  seven  years,  an 
evil  example  of  all  others  offending  in  such  like 
case."  Michael's  defence  was  that  he  was  "  tanned 
for  "  and  did  not  tan  himself,  he  being  only  "  a 
merchant  in  skins  tradeing  to  Ireland,  Scotland 
and  the  furthermost  parts  of  England."  The 
only  known  example  of  Michael  Johnson's  hand- 
writing is  this  defence.  Michael  was  committed 
for  trial  but  acquitted.  It  is  probable,  however, 
that  this  prosecution  laid  the  foundation  of  his 
ruin. 


172      DR.   JOHNSON'S    ANCESTRY 

But  I  must  pass  on  to  the  other  branch  :  the 
family  of  Dr.  Johnson's  mother.  Here  Dr. 
Johnson  did  himself  a  great  injustice,  for  he  had 
a  genuine  right  to  count  his  mother's  "  an  old 
family,"  although  the  term  is  in  any  case  relative. 
At  any  rate  he  could  carry  his  pedigree  back  to 
1620.  "  In  the  morning,"  says  Boswell,  "  we  had 
talked  of  old  families,  and  the  respect  due  to 
them.  Johnson  said — 

"  '  Sir,  you  have  a  right  to  that  kind  of  respect,  and 
are  arguing  for  yourself.  I  am  for  supporting  the  prin- 
ciple, and  I  am  disinterested  in  doing  it,  as  I  have  no 
such  right.'" 

Nevertheless,  Boswell,  in  this  opening  chapter, 
refers  to  the  mother  as  "  Sarah  Ford,  descended 
of  an  ancient  race  of  substantial  yeomanry  in 
Warwickshire,"  and  Johnson's  epitaph  upon 
his  mother's  tomb  describes  her  as  "  of  the 
ancient  family  of  Ford."  Thus  one  is  consider- 
ably bewildered  in  attempting  to  reconcile  John- 
son's attitude.  The  only  one  of  his  family  for 
whom  he  seems  to  have  had  a  good  word  was 
Cornelius  Harrison,  of  whom,  writing  to  Mrs. 
Thrale,  he  said  that  he  was  "  perhaps  the  only 
one  of  my  relations  who  ever  rose  in  fortune 


DR.   JOHNSON'S  ANCESTRY         173 

above  penury  or  in  character  above  neglect." 
This  Cornelius  was  the  son  of  John  Harrison, 
who  had  married  Johnson's  aunt,  Phrebe  Ford. 
Johnson's  account  of  Uncle  John  in  his  Annals 
is  not  flattering,  but  he  was  the  son  of  a  Rector 
of  Pilborough,  whose  father  was  Sir  Richard 
Harrison,  one  of  the  gentlemen  of  the  King's 
Bedchamber,  and  a  personality  of  a  kind.  Corne- 
lius, the  reputable  cousin,  died  in  1748,  but  his 
descendants  seem  to  have  been  a  poor  lot,  what- 
ever his  ancestors  may  have  been.  Mr.  Reade 
traces  their  history  with  all  the  relentlessness  of 
the  genealogist. 

Johnson's  great-grandfather  was  one  Henry 
Ford,  a  yeoman  in  Birmingham.  One  of  his 
sons,  Henry,  Johnson's  grand-uncle,  was  born 
in  1628.  He  owned  property  at  West  Brom- 
wich  and  elsewhere,  and  was  a  fellow  of 
Clifford's  Inn,  London.  Then  we  come  to 
Cornelius  Ford — "  Cornelius  Ford,  gentleman," 
he  is  styled  in  his  marriage  settlement.  Cornelius 
died  four  months  before  Samuel  Johnson  was 
born.  Cornelius  had  a  sister  Mary,  who  married 
one  Jesson,  and  their  only  son,  I  may  mention 
incidentally,  entered  at  Pembroke  College  in  1666, 


174      DR-    JOHNSON'S   ANCESTRY 

sixty  years  before  his  second-cousin,  our  Samuel, 
entered  the  same  college.  Another  cousin  by- 
marriage  was  a  Mrs.  Harriots,  to  whom  Johnson 
refers  in  his  Annals,  and  also  in  his  Prayers  and 
Meditations.  The  only  one  of  Cornelius  Ford's 
family  referred  to  in  the  biographies  is  Joseph 
Ford,  the  father  of  the  notorious  Parson  Ford, 
Johnson's  cousin,  of  whom  he  several  times  speaks. 
Joseph  was  a  physician  of  eminence  who  settled 
at  Stourbridge.  He  married  a  wealthy  widow, 
Mrs.  Hickman.  He  was  a  witness  to  the  marriage 
of  his  sister  Sarah  to  Michael  Johnson.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  but  that  the  presence  of  Dr. 
Ford  and  his  family  at  Stourbridge  accounts  for 
Johnson  being  sent  there  to  school  in  1725.  He 
stayed  in  the  house  of  his  cousin  Cornelius  Ford, 
not  as  Boswell  says  his  uncle  Cornelius,  at  Ped- 
more,  about  a  mile  from  Stourbridge.  He  walked 
in  every  day  to  the  Grammar  School.  A  con- 
nexion of  the  boy,  Gregory  Hickman,  was  residing 
next  to  the  Grammar  School.  A  kinsman  of 
Johnson  and  a  descendant  of  Hickman,  Dr.  Freer, 
still  lives  in  the  house.  I  met  him  at  Lichfield 
recently,  and  he  has  sent  me  a  photograph 
of  the  very  house,  which  stands  to-day  much 


DR.    JOHNSON'S    ANCESTRY       175 

as  it  did  when  Johnson  visited  it,  and  wrote 
at  twenty-two,  a  sonnet  to  Dorothy  Hickman 
"  playing  at  the  Spinet."  Dorothy  was  one  of 
Johnson's  three  early  loves,  with  Ann  Hector 
and  Olivia  Lloyd.  Dorothy  married  Dr.  John 
Turtin  and  had  an  only  child,  Dr.  Turtin,  the 
celebrated  physician  who  attended  Goldsmith  in 
his  last  illness. 

I  have  not  time  to  go  through  the  record  of  all 
Dr.  Johnson's  uncles  on  the  maternal  side,  and 
do  full  justice  to  Mr.  Reade's  industry  and 
mastery  of  detail.  I  may,  however,  mention  inci- 
dentally that  the  uncle  who  was  hanged,  if  one 
was,  must  have  been  one  of  his  father's  brothers, 
for  to  the  Fords  that  distinction  does  not  seem 
to  have  belonged.  Much  that  is  entertaining 
is  related  of  the  cousin  Parson  Ford,  who,  after 
sharing  with  the  famous  Earl  of  Chesterfield  in 
many  of  his  profligacies,  received  from  his  lord- 
ship the  Rectory  of  South  Luffenham.  There 
is  no  evidence,  however,  that  Chesterfield  ever 
knew  that  his  at  one  time  chaplain  and  boon  com- 
panion was  cousin  of  the  man  who  wrote  him 
the  most  famous  of  letters. 

The  mother  of  Cornelius  Ford  was  a  Crowley, 


176       DR.   JOHNSON'S    ANCESTRY 

and  this  brings  Johnson  into  relationship  with 
London  city  worthies,  for  Mrs.  Ford's  brother  was 
Sir  Ambrose  Crowley,  Kt.,  Alderman,  of  London, 
the  original  of  Addison's  Jack  Anvil.  One  of  Sir 
Ambrose  Crowley' s  daughters  married  Humphrey 
Parsons,  sometime  M.P.  for  London  and  twice 
Lord  Mayor.  Thus  we  see  that  during  the 
very  years  of  Johnson's  most  painful  struggle 
in  London  one  of  his  distant  cousins  or  con- 
nexions was  Chief  Magistrate  of  this  City. 
Another  connexion,  Elizabeth  Crowley,  was 
married  in  1724  at  Westminster  Abbey  to 
John,  tenth  Lord  St.  John  of  Bletsoe.  "  Here 
are  ancestors  for  you,  Mistress,"  Dr.  Johnson 
might  have  said  to  Mrs.  Thrale  if  he  had  only 
known — if  he  had  had  a  genealogist  at  his  elbow 
as  well  as  a  pushful  biographer. 

Mr.  Reade  prints  the  whole  of  the  marriage 
settlement  upon  the  union  of  Johnson's  mother 
and  father.  It  is  a  very  elaborate  document, 
and  suggests  the  undoubted  prosperity  of  the 
parties  at  the  time.  The  husband  was  fifty, 
the  bride  thirty-seven.  Samuel  was  not  born 
until  three  years  and  three  months  after  the 
marriage.  The  pair  frequently  in  early  married 


DR.   JOHNSON'S    ANCESTRY       177 

life  received  assistance  by  convenient  deaths  as 
the  following  extracts  from  wills  indicate  : — 

Cornelius  Ford  of  Pack-wood  in  the  Co.  of  Warwick. 

I  give  and  bequeath  unto  my  son-in-law  Michaell 
Johnson  the  sum  of  five  pounds,  and  to  his  wife  my 
daughter  five  and  twenty  pounds. 

Proved  May  I,  1709. 

Jane  Ford  of  Old  Turn  ford,  widow  of  Joseph  Ford. 

I  do  will  and  appoint  that  my  son  Cornelius  Ford 
do  and  shall  pay  to  my  brother-in-law,  Mr.  Michael 
Johnson  and  his  wife  and  their  trustees,  the  sum  of 
200  pounds  which  is  directed  by  his  late  father's  Will 
to  be  paid  to  me  and  in  lieu  of  so  much  moneys  which 
my  said  late  husband  received  in  trust  for  my  said 
brother  Johnson  and  his  wife. 

Proved  at  Worcester,  October  2,  1722. 

Then  "  good  cousin  Harriotts"  does  not  forget 
them  : — 

I  give  and  bequeath  to  my  cousin  Sarah  the  wife  of 
Michael  Johnson  the  like  sum  of  40  pounds  for  her  own 
separate  use,  and  one  pair  of  my  best  flaxen  sheets  and 
pillow  coats,  a  large  pewter  dish  and  a  dozen  of  pewter 
plates,  provided  that  her  husband  doth  at  the  same 
time  give  the  like  bond  to  my  executor  to  permit  his 
wife  to  dispose  of  the  same  at  her  will  and  pleasure. 

Elizabeth  Harriotts  of  Trysail  in  Staff., 

October  23,  1726. 
I.M.  12 


178       DR.   JOHNSON'S    ANCESTRY 

But  I  must  leave  this  fascinating  volume. 
I  cannot  find  time  to  tell  you  all  it  has  to  say 
about  the  Porter  family.  Mr.  Reade  is  as  in- 
formative when  treating  of  the  Porters,  of  Mrs. 
Johnson  and  her  daughter  Lucy,  as  he  is  with 
the  family  trees  of  which  I  have  spoken. 

I  hasten  on  to  Dr.  Hill's  Life.,  with  which 
I  am  only  concerned  here  at  the  point  where 
it  is  affected  by  Mr.  Reade's  book.  The  re- 
flection inevitably  arises  that  it  is  well-nigh 
impossible  efficiently  to  do  work  involving  re- 
search unless  one  has  an  income  derived 
from  other  sources.  Your  historian  in  pro- 
portion to  the  value  of  his  work  must  be  a 
rich  man,  and  so  must  the  biographer.  Good 
as  Brother  Birkbeck  Hill's  work  was,  it  would 
have  been  better  if  he  had  had  more  money. 
He  might  have  had  many  of  these  wills  and  other 
documents  copied,  upon  the  securing  of  which 
Mr.  Reade  must  have  expended  such  very  large 
sums.  Dr.  Hill  was  fully  alive  to  this.  "  If  I 
had  not  some  private  means,"  he  wrote  to  a  friend 
in  1897,  "  I  could  never  edit  Johnson  and  Bos- 
well  ;  but  I  do  not  get  so  well  paid  as  a  carpenter." 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  find  that  he  lost  exactly  £3 


DR.    JOHNSON'S    ANCESTRY       179 

by  publishing  Dr.  Johnson  :  his  Friends  and 
his  Critics.  He  made  £320  by  the  first  four 
years'  sale  of  the  "  Boswell."  This  ^320,  including 
American  rights,  made  the  bulk  of  his  payments 
for  his  many  years'  work,  and  the  book  has  not 
yet  gone  into  a  second  edition.  I  think  2,000 
were  printed.  There  were  between  40,000  and 
50,000  copies  of  Croker's  editions  sold,  so  that 
we  must  not  be  too  boastful  as  to  the  improved 
taste  of  the  present  age.  ^320  is  a  mere  bagatelle 
to  numbers  of  our  present  writers  of  utterly 
foolish  fiction.  Several  of  them  have  been  known 
to  spend  double  that  sum  on  a  single  motor-car. 
In  connexion  with  this  matter  I  cannot  refrain 
from  giving  one  passage  from  a  letter  of  Brother 
Hill's  :- 

My  old  friend    D lamented    that    the    two  new 

volumes  (of  my  Johnson  Miscellanies)  are  so  dear  as  to 
be  above  his  reach.  The  net  price  is  a  guinea.  On  Sun- 
day he  had  eight  glasses  of  Hollands  and  seltzer — a  shilling 
each,  a  pint  of  stout  and  some  cider,  besides  half  a 
dozen  cigars  or  so.  Two  days'  abstinence  from  cigars 
and  liquor  would  have  paid  for  my  book." 

Mrs.  Crump,  who  writes  her  father's  life,  has 
expressed  regret  to  me  that  there  is  so  little  in 


i8o        DR.    JOHNSON'S    ANCESTRY 

the  book  concerning  the  Johnson  Club  to  which 
Brother  Hill  was  so  devoted.  She  had  asked 
me  for  letters,  but  I  felt  that  all  in  my  pos- 
session were  unsuited  for  publication,  dealing 
rather  freely  with  living  persons.  Brother  Hill  was 
impatient  of  the  mere  bookmaker — the  literary 
charlatan  who  wrote  without  reading  suffi- 
ciently. There  are  two  pleasant  glimpses  of  our 
Club  in  the  volume  ;  I  quote  one.  It  was  of 
the  night  that  we  discussed  Dr.  Johnson  as  a 
Radical : — 

I  wish  that  you  and  Lucy  could  have  been  present 
last  night  and  witnessed  my  scene  of  triumph.  I  was 
indeed  most  nobly  welcomed.  The  scribe  told  me  with 
sympathetic  pride  that  the  correspondent  of  the  New 
Tork  Herald  had  asked  leave  to  attend,  as  he  wished  to 
telegraph  my  paper  out  to  America  !  !  !  as  well  as  the 
discussion.  There  were  some  very  good  speeches  made 
in  the  discussion  that  followed,  especially  by  a  Mr. 
Whale,  a  solicitor,  who  spoke  remarkably  well  and  with 
great  knowledge  of  his  Boswell.  He  said  that  he  pre- 
ferred to  call  it,  not  Johnson's  radical  side,  but  his  humani- 
tarian side.  Mr.  Birrell,  the  Obiter  Dicta  man,  also  spoke 
very  well.  He  is  a  clever  fellow.  He  was  equally  com- 
plimentary. He  maintained  in  opposition  to  Mr.  Whale 
that  radical  was  the  right  term,  and  in  fact  that  radi- 
calism and  humanitarianism  were  the  same.  Many  of 


DR.   JOHNSON'S    ANCESTRY       181 

them  said  what  a  light  the  paper  had  thrown  on  Johnson's 
character.  One  gentleman  came  up  and  congratulated 
me  on  the  very  delicate  way  in  which  I  had  handled  so 
difficult  a  subject,  and  had  not  given  offence  to  the 
Liberal  Unionists  and  Tories  present.  Edmund  Gosse, 
by  whom  I  sat,  was  most  friendly,  and  called  the  paper 
a  wonderful  tour  de  force,  referring  to  the  way  in  which 
I  had  linked  Johnson's  sayings.  He  asked  me  to  visit 
him  some  day  at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  and  assured 
me  of  a  hearty  welcome.  It  is  no  wonder  that  what 
with  the  supper  and  the  smoke  I  did  not  get  to  sleep  till 
after  two.  Among  the  guests  was  the  great  Bonner, 
the  Australian  cricketer,  whose  health  had  been  drunk 
with  that  of  the  other  visitors,  and  his  praise  sounded  at 
having  hit  some  balls  over  the  pavilion  at  Lord's.  With 
great  simplicity  he  said  that  after  seeing  the  way  in 
which  Johnson's  memory  was  revered,  he  would  much 
rather  have  been  such  a  man  than  have  gained  his  own 
greatest  triumphs  at  cricket.  He  did  not  say  it  jocularly 
at  all. 

Another  letter  from  Dr.  Hill  describes  how 
he  found  himself  at  Ashbourne  in  Derbyshire 
with  the  Club,  or  rather  with  a  fragment  of  it. 
He  wrote  from  the  Green  Man  there  concerning 
his  adventures. 

I  have  far  exceeded  my  time,  but  I  would  like 
in  conclusion  to  say  how  admirably  his  daughter 
has  written  this  book  on  our  Brother  Birkbeck 


i8z       DR.   JOHNSON'S    ANCESTRY 

Hill.  What  a  pleasant  picture  it  presents  of  a 
genuine  lover  of  literature.  His  was  not  an 
analytical  mind  nor  was  he  a  great  critic.  His 
views  on  Dante  and  Newman  will  not  be  shared 
by  any  of  us.  But,  what  is  far  more  important 
than  analysis  or  criticism,  he  had  an  entirely 
lovable  personality  and  was  a  most  clubbable 
man.  He  was  moreover  the  ideal  editor  of  Bos- 
well.  What  more  could  be  said  in  praise  of  a 
beloved  Brother  of  the  Johnson  Club  ! 


THE    PRIVATE    LIFE    OF 
FERDINAND  LASSALLE 


VII 

THE    PRIVATE    LIFE    OF 
FERDINAND  LASSALLE1 

Ich  habe  die  Inventur  meines  Lebens  gemacht. 
Es  war  gross,  brav,  wacker,  tapfer  und  glanzend  genug. 
Eine  kiinftige  Zeit  wird  mir  gerecht  zu  werden  wissen. 
— FERDINAND  LASSALLE,  August  9,  1864. 

I     THE  COUNTESS  SOPHIE  VON  HATZFELDT. 

FERDINAND  LASSALLE  was  born  at  Breslau  on 
April  n,  1825.  His  parents  were  of  Jewish  race, 
his  father  a  successful  silk  merchant.  From 
boyhood  he  was  now  the  tyrant,  now  the  slave 
of  a  mother  whom  he  loved  and  by  whom  he  was 
adored.  Heymann  Lassal — his  son  changed  the 

1  Originally  written  to  serve  as  an  Introduction  to  an  edition 
of  Mr.  George  Meredith's  Tragic  Comedians,  of  which  book 
Lassalle  is  the  hero.  That  edition  was  published  by  Messrs. 
Ward  Lock  &  Bowden,  who  afterwards  transferred  all  rights 
in  it  to  Messrs.  Archibald  Constable  &  Co.,  by  whose  courtesy 
the  paper  is  included  here. 

186 


1 86  THE  PRIVATE   LIFE  OF 

spelling  during  his  Paris  sojourn — appears  to 
have  been  irritable  and  tyrannical ;  and  there 
are  some  graphic  instances  in  the  recently  pub- 
lished "  Diary "  x  of  the  differences  between 
them,  ending  on  one  occasion  in  the  boy  rushing 
to  the  river,  where  his  terrified  father  finds  him 
hesitating  on  the  brink,  and  becomes  reconciled. 
A  more  attractive  picture  of  the  old  man  is  that 
told  of  his  visit  to  his  son-in-law,  Friedland,  who 
had  married  Lassalle's  sister.  Friedland  was 
ashamed  of  his  Jewish  origin,  and  old  Lassalle 
startled  the  guests  at  dinner  by  rising  and  frankly 
stating  that  he  was  a  Jew,  that  his  daughter  was 
a  Jewess,  and  that  her  husband  was  of  the  same 
race.  The  guests  cheered,  but  the  host  never 
forgave  his  too  frank  father-in-law. 

Lassalle  was  a  student  at  Breslau  University,  and 
later  at  Berlin,  where  he  laid  the  foundation  of 
those  Hegelian  studies  to  which  he  owed  his 
political  philosophy.  In  1845  he  went  to  Paris, 
and  there  secured  the  friendship  of  Heine,  being 
included  with  George  Sand  in  the  interesting 
circle  around  the  "  mattress  grave  "  of  the  sick 
poet. 

1  Lassalle's  Tagebuch,  edited  by  Paul  Lindau,  1891. 


FERDINAND  LASSALLE  187 

Among  Heine's  letters  *  there  are  four  ad- 
dressed to  Lassalle,  now  as  "  Dear  and  best 
beloved  friend,"  now  as  "  Dearest  brother-in- 
arms." "  Be  assured,"  he  says,  "  that  I  love  you 
beyond  measure.  I  have  never  before  felt  so 
much  confidence  in  any  one."  "  I  have  found 
in  no  one,"  he  says  again,  "  so  much  passion  and 
clearness  of  intellect  united  in  action.  You  have 
good  right  to  be  audacious — we  others  only 
usurp  this  Divine  right,  this  heavenly  privilege." 
And  to  Varnhagen  von  Ense  he  writes  : — 

My  friend,  Herr  Lassalle,  who  brings  you  this  letter^ 
is  a  young  man  of  the  most  remarkable  intellectual  gifts. 
With  the  most  thorough  erudition,  with  the  widest 
learning,  with  the  greatest  penetration  that  I  have  ever 
known,  and  with  the  richest  gift  of  exposition,  he  com- 
bines an  energy  of  will  and  a  capacity  for  action  which 
astonish  me.  ...  In  no  one  have  I  found  united  so 
much  enthusiasm  and  practical  intelligence. 

"  In  every  line,"  says  Brandes,  "  this  letter 
shows  the  far-seeing  student  of  life,  indeed,  the 
prophet !  " 

Lassalle  is  not  backward  in  reciprocating  the 
enthusiasm. 

1  Heinrich  Heine's  sdmmtliche  Werke,  vol.  xxii.,  pp.  84-99. 


1 88          THE    PRIVATE   LIFE   OF 

"  I  love  Heine,"  he  declares ;  "  he  is  my  second  self. 
What  audacity  !  what  crushing  eloquence  !  He  knows 
how  to  whisper  like  a  zephyr  when  it  kisses  rose-blooms, 
how  to  breathe  like  fire  when  it  rages  and  destroys  ; 
he  calls  forth  all  that  is  tenderest  and  softest,  and  then 
all  that  is  fiercest  and  most  daring.  He  has  the  com- 
mand of  all  the  range  of  feeling." 

Lassalle's  sympathy  with  Heine  never  lessened. 
It  was  Heine  who  lost  grasp  of  the  intrinsically 
higher  nature  of  his  countryman  and  co-religionist, 
and  an  acute  difference  occurred,  as  we  shall  see, 
when  Lassalle  interfered  in  the  affairs  of  the 
Countess  von  Hatzfeldt.  Introduced  to  the 
Countess  by  his  friend  Dr.  Mendelssohn,  in  1846, 
Lassalle  felt  that  here  in  concrete  form  was  scope 
for  all  his  enthusiasm  of  humanity,  and  he  deter- 
mined to  devote  his  life  to  championing  the 
cause  of  the  oppressed  lady.1  The  Countess 

1  The  most  concise  account  of  the  affair  is  contained  in 
the  story  of  Sophie  Solutzeff,  entitled,  Eine  Liebes-episode 
aus  dent  Leben  Ferdinand  Lassalle's.  This  booklet,  which  is 
published  in  German,  French,  and  Russian,  professes  to  be  an 
account  of  Lassalle's  love  for  a  young  Russian  lady,  Sophie 
Solutzeff,  some  two  years  before  he  met  Helene  von  Donniges. 
He  is  represented  as  being  himself  in  a  frenzy  of  passion  ;  the 
lady,  howevei,  rejecting  as  a  lover  the  man  she  had  been  pre- 
pared to  worship  as  a  teacher.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that 


FERDINAND  LASSALLE  189 

was  the  wife  of  a  wealthy  and  powerful  nobleman, 
who  ill-treated  her  shamefully.  He  imprisoned 
her  in  his  castles,  refused  her  doctors  and  medicine 
in  sickness,  and  carried  off  her  children.  Her 
own  family,  as  powerful  as  the  Count,  had  often 
intervened,  and  the  Count's  repentances  were 
many  but  short-lived.  In  1846  matters  reached 
a  crisis.  The  Count  wrote  to  his  second  son, 

the  whole  story  is  a  fabrication,  in  which  the  Countess  von 
Hatzfeldt  had  a  considerable  part.  The  Countess  was  rightly 
judged  by  popular  opinion  to  have  played  a  discreditable  role 
in  the  love  passages  between  Lassalle  and  Helene  ;  and  Helene's 
own  account  of  the  matter  in  her  Reminiscences  was  an  additional 
blow  at  the  pseudo-friend  who  might  have  helped  the  lovers 
so  much.  What  more  natural  than  that  the  Countess  should 
be  anxious  to  break  the  force  of  Helene's  indictment,  by  en- 
dorsing the  popular,  and  indeed  accurate  judgment,  that 
Lassalle  was  very  inflammable  where  women  were  concerned. 
This  she  could  do  by  depicting  him,  a  little  earlier,  in  precisely 
similar  bondage  to  that  which  he  had  professed  to  Helene. 
That  the  Countess  wrote,  or  assisted  to  write,  the  compilation 
of  letters  and  diaries,  does  not,  however,  destroy  its  value  as  a 
record  of  Lassalle's  struggle  on  her  behalf.  That  account, 
if  not  written  by  Lassalle,  was  written  or  inspired  by  the  other 
great  actor  in  the  Hatzfeldt  drama,  and  may  therefore  be 
considered  a  fairly  safe  guide  in  recounting  the  story.  Mr. 
Israel  Zangwill,  since  the  above  was  written,  has  published  an 
article  on  Lassalle  in  his  Dreamers  of  the  Ghetto.  He  accept! 
Sophie  Solutzeff's  story  as  genuine,  but  that  is  merely  thf 
credulity  of  an  accomplished  romancer. 


190          THE   PRIVATE   LIFE  OF 

Paul,  asking  him  to  leave  his  mother.  The  boy 
carried  this  letter  to  the  Countess ;  and  Lassalle 
relates  that,  finding  the  lady  in  tears,  he  per- 
suaded her  to  a  full  disclosure  of  the  facts.  He 
pledged  himself  to  save  her,  and  for  nine  years 
carried  on  the  struggle,  with  ultimate  victory, 
but  with  considerable  loss  of  reputation.  He 
first  told  the  story  to  Mendelssohn  and  Oppen- 
heim,  two  friends  of  great  wealth,  the  latter  a 
Judge  of  one  of  the  superior  courts  in  Prussia. 
They  agreed  to  help  him  ;  for  then,  as  always, 
Lassalle's  persuasive  powers  were  irresistible. 
They  went  with  him  from  Berlin  to  Diisseldorf, 
the  Count  being  in  that  neighbourhood.  Von 
Hatzfeldt  was  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  caught  in  the 
toils  of  a  new  mistress,  the  Baroness  Meyendorff. 
Lassalle  discovered  that  she  had  obtained  from 
the  Count  a  deed  assigning  to  her  some  pro- 
perty which  should  in  the  ordinary  course  have 
come  to  the  boy  Paul.  The  Countess,  hearing 
of  the  disaster  which  seemed  likely  to  befall  her 
favourite  son,  made  her  way  into  her  husband's 
presence,  and  in  the  scene  which  followed  secured 
a  promise  that  the  document  should  be  revoked — 
destroyed.  But  no  sooner  had  she  left  him  than 


FERDINAND  LASSALLE  191 

the  Count  returned  to  the  MeyendorfF  influence, 
and  refused  to  see  his  wife  again.  Soon  after- 
wards it  was  discovered  that  the  woman  had  set 
out  for  Cologne.  Lassalle  begged  his  friends 
Oppenheim  and  Mendelssohn,  to  follow  her 
and,  if  possible,  to  ascertain  whether  the  momen- 
tous document  had  actually  been  destroyed. 
They  obeyed,  and  reached  the  hotel  at  Cologne 
about  the  same  time  as  the  Baroness.  Here  they 
were  guilty  of  an  indiscretion,  if  of  nothing  worse, 
for  which  Lassalle  can  surely  in  no  way  be  blamed, 
but  which  was  used  for  many  a  year  to  tarnish 
his  name.  Oppenheim,  on  his  way  upstairs, 
observed  a  servant  with  the  luggage  of  the 
Baroness ;  among  other  things  a  desk  or  casket 
of  a  kind  commonly  used  to  carry  valuable  papers. 
Thinking  only  of  the  fact  that  it  was  desirable  to 
obtain  a  certain  document  from  the  brutal 
Count,  he  pounced  upon  the  casket  when  the 
servant's  back  was  turned.  But  he  had  no 
luggage  with  him  in  which  to  conceal  it,  and  so 
handed  it  to  Mendelssohn.  Mendelssohn,  al- 
though fully  sensible  of  the  blunder  that  had  been 
committed,  could  not  desert  his  friend,  and  placed 
the  casket  in  his  trunk. 


192          THE   PRIVATE   LIFE    OF 

The  whole  hotel  was  in  an  uproar  when  the 
Baroness  discovered  her  loss.  The  friends  fled 
panic-stricken  in  opposite  directions.  Suspicion 
immediately  fell  upon  Dr.  Mendelssohn,  because 
his  room  was  seen  to  have  been  left  in  confusion. 
He  was  pursued,  but  succeeded  in  escaping  from  a 
railway  carriage  and  fleeing  to  Paris,  leaving  his 
luggage  in  the  hands  of  the  police.  In  his  box 
some  papers  were  found  which  incriminated 
Oppenheim  ;  and  Oppenheim,  a  Judge  of  one  of 
the  superior  courts,  and  the  son  of  a  millionaire, 
was  arrested  and  imprisoned  for  theft ! 

Lassalle  visited  Oppenheim  in  prison,  and 
extracted  from  him  a  promise  of  silence  as  to  the 
motive  for  his  conduct.  He  then  threw  himself 
vigorously  into  the  struggle,  both  in  the  press 
and  in  the  law  courts.  Here  he  seems  to  have 
parted  company  with  Heine,  because,  as  he  tells 
us,  "  the  Baroness  Meyendorff  was  a  friend  of  the 
Princess  de  Lieven,  and  the  Princess  de  Lieven 
was  the  mistress  of  Guizot,  and  Heine  received  a 
pension  from  Guizot." 

Oppenheim  was  acquitted  in  1846,  and  Men- 
delssohn, who  was  really  innocent  of  the  actual 
robbery,  naturally  thought  it  safe  to  return  to 


FERDINAND   LASSALLE  193 

Germany.  He  was,  however,  tried  before  the 
assize  court  of  Cologne,  and  sentenced  to  five 
years'  imprisonment.  Alexander  von  Humboldt 
obtained  a  reduction  of  the  sentence  to  one  year, 
but  on  condition  that  Mendelssohn  should  leave 
Europe.  He  went,  after  his  release  from  prison, 
to  Constantinople,  and  when  the  Crimean  war 
broke  out  joined  the  Turkish  army,  dying  on  the 
march  in  1854. 

Meanwhile  Germany  rang  for  many  years 
with  the  story  of  the  so-called  robbery,  and 
Lassalle's  name  was  even  more  associated  there- 
with than  were  those  of  his  more  culpable  friends. 
And  this  was  not  unnatural,  because  he  was 
engaged  year  after  year  in  continuous  warfare 
with  Count  Hatzfeldt.  At  length,  in  1854,  about 
the  time  that  the  unfortunate  Dr.  Mendelssohn 
died  in  the  East,  he  secured  for  the  Countess 
complete  separation  and  an  ample  provi- 
sion. 

Lassalle's  friendship  with  this  lady  inevitably 
gave  rise  to  scandal.  But  never  surely  was  scandal 
so  little  justified.  She  was  twenty  years  his  senior, 
and  the  relation  was  clearly  that  of  mother  and 
son.  In  her  letters  he  is  always  "  my  dear  child," 


I.M. 


194          THE   PRIVATE   LIFE  OF 

and  in  his  she  is  the  confidante  of  the  innumerable 
troubles  of  mind  and  of  heart  of  which  so  impres- 
sionable a  man  as  Ferdinand  Lassalle  had  more 
than  his  share. 

"  You  are  without  reason  and  judgment  where 
women  are  concerned,"  she  tells  him,  when  he 
confides  to  her  his  passion  for  Helene  von  Donni- 
ges ;  and  the  remark  opens  out  a  vista  of  con- 
fidences of  which  the  world  happily  knows  but 
little.  From  the  assize  court  of  Diisseldorf,  of 
all  places,  we  have  a  very  definite  glimpse  of  a 
good-looking  man,  likely  to  be  a  favourite  in  the 
society  of  the  opposite  sex  : — 

"  Ferdinand  Lassalle,"  runs  the  official  document, 
"  aged  twenty-three,  a  civilian,  born  at  Breslau,  and 
dwelling  recently  at  Berlin.  Stands  five  feet  six  inches 
in  height,  has  brown  curly  hair,  open  forehead,  brown 
eyebrows,  dark  blue  eyes,  well  proportioned  nose  and 
mouth,  and  rounded  chin." 

He  was  indeed  a  favourite  in  Berlin  drawing- 
rooms,  pronounced  a  "  Wunderkind  "  by  Hum- 
boldt,  and  enthusiastically  admired  on  all  sides. 
But,  assuming  the  story  of  Sophie  Solutzeff  to 
be  mythical,  there  is  no  evidence  that  Lassalle 


FERDINAND   LASSALLE  195 

had  ever  had  any  very  serious  romance  in  his  life 
until  he  met  Helene  von  Donniges. 

Es  ist  eine  alte  Geschickte, 

Doch  bleibt  sie  immer  neu. — HEINE. 

II.     HELENE  VON  DONNIGES 

HELENE  VON  DONNIGES  has  told  us  the  story  in 
fullest  detail — the  story  of  that  tragic  love  which 
was  to  send  Lassalle  to  his  too  early  death.  She 
was  the  daughter  of  a  Bavarian  diplomatist  who 
had  held  appointments  in  Italy,  and  later  in 
Switzerland.  She  was  betrothed  as  a  child  of 
twelve  to  an  Italian  of  forty  years  of  age.  At 
a  time  when,  as  she  says,  her  thoughts  should 
have  been  concentrated  upon  her  studies,  they 
were  distracted  by  speculations  on  marriage  and 
the  marriage  tie.  A  young  Wallachian  student 
named  Yanko  Racowitza  crossed  her  path.  His 
loneliness — he  was  far  from  home  and  friends — 
kindled  her  sympathy.  Dark  and  ugly,  she  com- 
pared him  to  Othello,  and  called  him  her  "Moor." 
In  spite  of  some  parental  opposition  she  insisted 
upon  plighting  her  troth  to  him,  and  the  Italian 
lover  was  scornfully  dismissed.  Then  comes 


196          THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF 

the  opening  scene  of  the  present  story.     It  was 
in    Berlin,    whither    Helen — we    will    adopt    the 
English  spelling  of  the  name — had  travelled  with 
her  grandmother  in  1862,  that  she  was  asked  at 
a  ball  the  momentous  question,  "  Do  you   know 
Lassalle  ?  "     She    had    never    heard    his    name. 
Her  questioner  was   Baron   Korff,   a  son-in-law 
of  Meyerbeer,  who,  charmed  by  her  originality, 
remarked  that  she  and  Lassalle  were  made  for 
one    another.     Two    weeks    later    her    curiosity 
was  further  excited,  when  Dr.   Karl  Oldenberg 
let  fall  some  similar  remark  as  to  her  intellectual 
kinship  with  the  mysterious  Lassalle.     She  asked 
her  grandmother  about  him,  and  was  told  that 
he   was   a   "  shameless   demagogue."     Then   she 
turned  to  her  lover,  who  promised  to  inquire. 
Racowitza   brought   her  information   about   the 
Countess,   the   casket,    and   other   "  sensations  " 
— only  to  excite  her  curiosity  the  more.     Finally 
a  friend,  Frau  Hirsemenzel,  undertook  to  intro- 
duce her  to  the  notorious  Socialist.     The  intro- 
duction took  place  at  a  party,  and  if  her  account 
is   to   be   trusted,    no    romance   could   be    more 
dramatic   than   the   actuality.     They  loved   one 
another    at  first  sight,  conversed  with  freedom, 


FERDINAND  LASSALLE  197 

and  he  called  her  by  an  endearing  name  as  he 
offered  her  his  arm  to  escort  her  home. 

"  Somehow  it  did  not  seem  at  all  remarkable," 
she  says,  "  that  a  stranger  should  thus  call  me 
*  Du  '  on  first  acquaintance.  We  seemed  to  fit 
to  one  another  so  perfectly." 

She  was  in  her  nineteenth  year,  Lassalle  in  his 
thirty-ninth.  The  pair  did  not  see  one  another 
again  for  some  months,  not  in  fact  until  Helen 
visited  Berlin  as  the  guest  of  a  certain  lawyer 
Holthoff.  Here  she  met  Lassalle  at  a  concert, 
and  the  friendly  lawyer  connived  at  their  being 
more  than  once  together.  At  a  ball,  on  one 
occasion,  Lassalle  asked  her  what  she  would  do 
if  he  were  sentenced  to  death,  and  she  beheld 
him  ascending  the  scaffold. 

"  I  should  wait  till  your  head  was  severed," 
was  her  answer,  "  in  order  that  you  might  look 
upon  your  beloved  to  the  last,  and  then — I 
should  take  poison." 

He  was  pleased  with  her  reply,  but  declared 
that  there  was  no  fear — his  star  was  in  the  ascend- 
ant !  And  so  it  seemed ;  for  although  young 
Racowitza  even  then  accosted  him  in  the  ball- 
room, the  friendly  Holthoff  soon  arranged  an 


198         THE  PRIVATE   LIFE  OF 

informal  betrothal ;  and  Lassalle  was  on  the  eve 
of  a  great  public  triumph  which  seemed  more 
likely  to  take  him  to  the  throne  than  to  the  scaf- 
fold. 

To  many  this  will  seem  an  exaggeration.  Yet 
hear  Prince  Bismarck  in  the  Reichstag  seventeen 
years  after  Lassalle's  death  : — 

He  was  one  of  the  most  intellectual  and  gifted  men 
with  whom  I  have  ever  had  intercourse,  a  man  who  was 
ambitious  in  high  style,  but  who  was  by  no  means 
Republican  :  he  had  very  decided  national  and  monarch- 
ical sympathies,  and  the  idea  which  he  strove  to  realize 
was  the  German  Empire,  and  therein  we  had  a  point  of 
contact.  Lassalle  was  extremely  ambitious,  and  it  was 
perhaps  a  matter  of  doubt  to  him  whether  the  German 
Empire  would  close  with  the  Hohenzollern  dynasty  or 
the  Lassalle  dynasty  ;  but  he  was  monarchical  through 
and  through.  Lassalle  was  an  energetic  and  very  intel- 
lectual man,  to  talk  with  whom  was  very  instructive. 
Our  conversations  lasted  for  hours,  and  I  was  always 
sorry  when  they  came  to  an  end.1 

The  year  1864,  which  was  to  close  so  tragic- 
ally, opened  indeed  with  extraordinary  promise. 
Lassalle  left  Berlin  in  May — Helen  had  gone 

1  Debate  in  the  German  Reichstag,  April  2,  1 88 1.  Quoted 
bv  VV  H  Dawson. 


FERDINAND  LASSALLE  199 

back  to  Geneva  two  or  three  months  earlier — 
travelling  by  Leipzig  and  Cologne  through  the 
Rhenish  provinces,  and  holding  a  "  glorious 
review  "  the  while. 

"  I  have  never  seen  anything  like  it,"  he  writes  to  the 
Countess  von  Hatzfeldt.  "  The  entire  population  in- 
dulged in  indescribable  jubilation.  The  impression 
made  upon  me  was  that  such  scenes  must  have  attended 
the  founding  of  new  religions." 

And  it  appeared  possible  that  Heine's  des- 
cription of  Lassalle  as  the  Messiah  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  was  to  be  realized.  The  Bishop  of 
Mayence  was  on  his  side,  and  the  King  of  Prussia 
sympathetic.  As  he  passed  from  town  to  town 
the  whole  population  turned  out  to  do  him 
honour.  Countless  thousands  met  him  at  the 
stations  :  the  routes  were  ornamented  with 
triumphal  arches,  the  houses  decorated  with 
wreaths,  and  flowers  were  thrown  upon  him  as 
he  passed.  As  the  cavalcade  approached  the 
town  of  Ronsdorf,  for  example,  it  was  easy  to  see 
that  the  people  were  on  tip-toe  with  expecta- 
tion. At  the  entrance  an  arch  bore  the  inscrip- 
tion : — 


200          THE  PRIVATE  LIFE   OF 

Willkommen  dem  Dr.  Ferdinand  Lassalle 
Viel  tausendmal  im  Ronsdorfer  Thai ! 

Under  arches  and  garlands,  smothered  with 
flowers  thrown  by  young  work-girls,  whose 
fathers,  husbands,  brothers,  cheered  again  and 
again,  Lassalle  and  his  friends  entered  the  town, 
while  a  vast  multitude  followed  in  procession. 
It  was  at  Ronsdorf  that  Lassalle  made  the  speech 
which  had  in  it  something  of  fateful  presenti- 
ment : — 

"  I  have  not  grasped  this  banner,"  he  said,  "  without 
knowing  quite  clearly  that  I  myself  may  fall.  The  feel- 
ings which  fill  me  at  the  thought  that  I  may  be  removed 
cannot  be  better  expressed  than  in  the  words  of  the 
Roman  poet : 

'  Exoriare  aliquis  nostris  ex  ossibus  ultor  !  ' 

or  in  German,  *  Moge,  wenn  ich  beseitigt  werde,  irgend 
ein  Rdcher  und  Nachfolger  aus  meinen  Gebeinen  auferste- 
hen ! '  May  this  great  and  national  movement  of 
civilization  not  fall  with  my  person,  but  may  the  con- 
flagration which  I  have  kindled  spread  farther  and 
farther,  so  long  as  one  of  you  still  breathes.  Promise 
me  that,  and  in  token  raise  your  right  hands." 

All  hands  were  raised  in  silence,  and  the  impress- 
ive scene  closed  with  a  storm  of  acclamation. 


FERDINAND   LASSALLE  201 

But  Lassalle  was  worn  out,  and  he  fled  for  a 
time  from  the  storm  and  conflict  to  Switzerland. 
Helen  at  Geneva  heard  of  his  sojourn  at  Righi- 
Kaltbad,  and  she  made  an  excursion  thither  with 
two  or  three  friends,  and  thus  on  July  25  (1864) 
the  lovers  met  again.  An  account  of  their 
romantic  interview  comes  to  us  in  Helen's  own 
diary  and  in  the  letter  which  Lassalle  wrote  to 
the  Countess  Hatzfeldt  two  days  later.  Helen 
tells  how  they  climbed  the  Kulm  together,  dis- 
cussing by  the  way  the  question  of  their  marriage 
and  the  possibility  of  opposition. 

"  What  have  your  parents  against  me  ?  "  asked 
Lassalle  ;  and  was  told  that  only  once  had  she 
mentioned  his  name  before  them,  and  that  their 
horror  of  the  Jew  agitator  had  ever  since  closed 
her  mouth.  So  the  conversation  sped.  The 
next  morning  their  hope  of  "  a  sunrise  "  was 
destroyed  by  a  fog.  "  How  often,"  says  Helen, 
"  when  in  later  years  I  have  stood  upon  the 
summit  of  the  Righi  and  seen  the  day  break  in 
all  its  splendour,  have  I  recalled  this  foggy,  damp 
morning,  and  Lassalle's  disappointment !  " 

As  he  looked  upon  her,  so  pale  and  trembling, 
he  abused  the  climate,  and  promised  that  he 


202  THE  PRIVATE   LIFE  OF 

would  give  up  politics,  devote  himself  to  science 
and  literature,  and  take  her  to  Egypt  or  India. 
He  talked  to  her  of  the  Countess,  "  who  will 
think  only  of  my  happiness,"  and  he  talked  of 
religion.  Was  his  Jewish  faith  against  him  in 
her  eyes  ?  Mahommedanism  and  Judaism,  it 
was  all  one  to  her,  was  the  answer,  but  paganism 
by  preference !  They  parted,  to  correspond 
immediately,  and  Lassalle  to  write  to  the  aston- 
ished, and  in  this  affair,  unsympathetic  Countess, 
of  the  meeting  with  his  beloved.  With  the  utmost 
friendliness,  however,  he  endeavoured  to  keep 
the  elder  lady  at  a  distance  for  a  time. 

On  July  20  Helen  writes  to  him,  repeating  her 
promise  to  become  his  wife. 

You  said  to  me  yesterday  :  "  Say  but  a  sensible  and 
decided  '  Yes ' — et  je  me  charge  du  reste"  Good  ;  I 
say  "  Yes  " — chargez-vous  done  du  reste,  I  only  require 
that  we  first  do  all  in  our  power  to  win  my  parents  to  a 
friendly  attitude.  To  me  belongs,  however,  a  painful 
task.  I  must  slay  in  cold  blood  the  true  heart  of  Yanko 
von  Racowitza,  who  has  given  me  the  purest  love,  the 
noblest  devotion.  With  heartless  egotism  I  must  des- 
troy the  day-dream  of  a  noble  youth.  But  for  your 
sake  I  will  even  do  what  is  wrong. 

Meanwhile    Lassalle's    unhappy    attempts    to 


FERDINAND  LASSALLE  203 

conciliate  the  Countess  continue.  He  writes  of 
Helen's  sympathy  and  dwells  upon  her  entire 
freedom  from  jealousy.  He  tells  Frau  von  Hatz- 
feldt  how  much  Helen  is  longing  to  see  his  old 
friend.  In  conclusion,  as  though  not  to  show  him- 
self too  blind  a  lover,  he  remarks  that  Helen's 
one  failing  is  a  total  lack  of  will.  "  When,  how- 
ever, we  are  man  and  wife,"  he  adds,  "  then  shall 
I  have  '  will '  enough  for  both,  and  she  will  be  as 
clay  in  the  hands  of  the  potter."  The  Countess 
continues  obdurate,  and  in  a  further  letter 
(Aug.  2)  Lassalle  says  : — 

It  is  really  a  piece  of  extraordinary  good  fortune 
that,  at  the  age  of  thirty-nine  and  a  half,  I  should  be 
able  to  find  a  wife  so  beautiful,  so  sympathetic,  who 
loves  me  so  much,  and  who — an  indispensable  require- 
ment— is  so  entirely  absorbed  in  my  personality. 

At  Lassalle's  request,  Helen  herself  wrote  thus 
to  the  Baroness  von  Hatzfeldt : — 

DEAR  AND  BELOVED  COUNTESS, — 

Armed  with  an  introduction  from  my  lord  and 
master,  I,  his  affianced  wife,  come  to  you — unhappily 
only  in  writing — le  cosur.et  la  main  ouverte,  and  beg  of 
you  a  little  of  that  friendship  which  you  have  given  to 
him  so  abundantly.  How  deeply  do  I  regret  that  your 


204          THE  PRIVATE  LIFE  OF 

illness  separates  us,  that  I  cannot  tell  you  face  to  face 
how  much  I  love  and  honour  him,  how  ardently  I  long 
for  your  help  and  advice  as  to  how  I  can  best  make  my 
beautiful  and  noble  eagle  happy.  This  my  first  letter 
must  necessarily  seem  somewhat  constrained  to  you  ;  for 
I  am  an  insignificant,  unimportant  being,  who  can  do 
nothing  but  love  and  honour  him,  and  strive  to  make 
him  happy.  I  would  fain  dance  and  sing  like  a  child, 
and  drive  away  all  care  from  him.  My  one  desire  is  to 
understand  his  great  and  noble  nature,  and  in  good  for- 
tune and  in  bad  to  stand  faithful  and  true  by  his  side. 

Then  followed  a  further  appeal  for  the  love 
and  help  of  this  friend  of  Lassalle's  early  years. 
It  was  all  in  vain.  Instead  of  a  letter,  Helen 
received  from  the  Countess  what  she  called  "  a 
scrawl,"  and  Lassalle  a  long  homily  on  his  lack 
of  judgment  and  foresight.  Lassalle  defended 
himself,  and  so  the  not  too  pleasing  correspond- 
ence went  on. 

Yet  these  days  in  Berne  were  the  happiest  in 
the  lives  of  Lassalle  and  his  betrothed.  Helen 
was  staying  with  a  Madame  Aarson,  and  was 
constantly  visited  by  her  lover.  It  was  agreed 
between  them  that  Lassalle  should  follow  her  to 
Geneva,  and  see  her  parents.  But  no  sooner 
had  he  entered  his  room  at  the  Pension  Leovet, 


FERDINAND  LASSALLE  205 

in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  house  of  Herr  von 
Donniges,  than  a  servant  handed  him  a  letter 
from  Helen.     It  told  how  on  her  arrival  she  had 
found  the  whole  house  excited  by  the  betrothal 
of  her  sister  Margaret  to  Count  von  Keyserling. 
Her   mother's   delight   in   the   engagement   had 
tempted  her  (contrary  to  Lassalle's  express  wish) 
to  confidences,  and  she  had  told  of  her  love  for 
the  arch-agitator.     Her  mother  had  turned  upon 
her   with   loathing,    execrated   Lassalle   without 
stint,    spoken    scornfully   of   the    Countess,    the 
casket    robbery,    and    kindred    matters.     "  It    is 
quite    impossible,"    urged    the    frantic    woman, 
"  that  Count  Keyserling  will  unite  himself  to  a 
family   with   a    connexion   of   this   kind."     The 
father  joined  in  the  upbraiding,  the  disowning  of 
an  undutiful  daughter.     One  has  but  to  remem- 
ber the  vulgar,  tradesman  instinct,  which  then, 
as  now,  guides  the  marriage  ideals  of  a  certain 
class,  to  take  in  the  whole  situation  at  a  glance. 

Lassalle  had  hardly  begun  to  read  the  letter 
when  Helen  appeared  before  him,  and  begged 
him  to  take  her  away  immediately — to  France — 
anywhere  !  Her  father's  violence,  her  mother's 
abuse,  had  driven  her  to  despair. 


206  THE  PRIVATE  LIFE  OF 

Lassalle  was  indignant  with  her.  Why  had  she 
not  obeyed  him  ?  He  would  speak  to  her  father. 
All  would  yet  be  well.  But — she  was  compro- 
mised there — at  his  hotel.  Had  she  a  friend  in 
the  neighbourhood  ? 

At  this  moment  her  maid  came  in  to  say  that 
there  was  a  carriage  ready  to  take  them  to  the 
station.  A  train  would  start  for  Paris  in  a  quar- 
ter of  an  hour.  Helen  renewed  her  entreaty, 
but  Lassalle  remained  resolute.  He  would  only 
receive  her  from  her  father.  To  what  friend 
could  he  take  her  ?  Helen  named  Madame  Caro- 
line Rognon,  who  beheld  them  with  astonishment. 

A  few  minutes  later  Frau  von  Donniges  and 
her  daughter  Margaret  entered  the  house.  Then 
followed  a  disagreeable  scene  between  Lassalle 
and  the  mother,  ending,  after  many  scornful 
words  thrown  at  the  ever  self-restrained  lover,  in 
Helen  being  carried  off  before  his  eyes — indeed, 
by  his  wish.  Lassalle  had  shown  dignity  and 
self-restraint,  but  he  had  killed  the  girl's  love — 
until  it  was  too  late. 

Duhring  speaks  of  Lassalle's  "  inconceivable 
stupidity,"  and  there  is  a  great  temptation  at 
this  date,  with  all  the  circumstances  before  us, 


FERDINAND    LASSALLE  207 

to  look  at  the  matter  with  Duhring's  eyes.  But 
to  one  whom  Heine  had  called  a  Messiah,  whom 
Humboldt  had  termed  a  "  Wunderkind,"  and 
Bismarck  had  greeted  as  among  the  greatest  men 
of  the  age,  it  may  well  have  seemed  flatly  incon- 
ceivable that  this  insignificant  little  Swiss  diploma- 
tist could  long  refuse  the  alliance  he  proposed. 
Yet  stronger  and  more  potent  may  have  been  the 
feeling — although  of  this  there  is  no  positive 
evidence  extant — that  the  social  movement 
which  he  had  so  much  at  heart  could  not  well 
endure  a  further  scandal.  The  Hatzfeldt  story 
had  been  used  against  him  frequently  enough. 
An  elopement — so  sweetly  romantic  under  some 
circumstances — would  have  been  the  ruin  of 
his  great  political  reputation. 

Lassalle  speedily  regretted  his  course  of  action 
— what  man  in  love  would  not  have  done  so  ? — 
but  his  first  impulse  was  consistent  with  the  life 
of  strenuous  effort  for  the  cause  he  had  embraced. 
To  a  romantic  girl,  however,  his  conduct  could 
but  seem  brutal  and  treacherous.  Helen  had 
done  more  than  enough.  She  had  compromised 
herself  irretrievably,  and  an  immediate  mar- 
riage was  imperatively  demanded  by  the  con- 


208  THE  PRIVATE  LIFE    OF 

ventionalities.  She  was,  however,  seized  by  a 
brutal  father  and  confined  to  her  room,  until  she 
understood  that  Lassalle  had  left  Geneva.  Then 
the  entreaties  of  her  family,  the  representation 
that  her  sister's  marriage,  even  her  father's 
position,  were  in  jeopardy,  caused  her  to  declare 
that  she  would  abandon  Lassalle. 

At  this  point  the  story  is  conflicting.  Helen 
herself  says  that  she  never  saw  Lassalle  again  after 
he  had  handed  her  over  to  her  mother,  and  that 
after  a  long  period  of  ill-usage  and  petty  perse- 
cution, she  was  hurried  one  night  across  the  lake. 
Becker,  however,  declares  that  as  Lassalle  and 
his  friend  Riistow  were  walking  in  Geneva  a  car- 
riage passed  them  on  the  way  to  the  station 
containing  Helen  and  another  lady,  and  that 
Helen  acknowledged  their  salute.  Anyway,  it  is 
clear  that  Helen  went  to  Bex  on  August  9,  and 
that  Lassalle  left  Geneva  on  the  I3th.  Letter 
after  letter  was  sent  by  Lassalle  to  Helen — one 
from  Karlsruhe  on  the  I5th,  and  one  from 
Munich  on  the  I9th,  but  no  answer.  In  Karls- 
ruhe, according  to  von  Hofstetten,  Lassalle  wept 
like  a  child.  His  correspondence  with  the  Coun- 
tess and  with  Colonel  Riistow  becomes  forcible 


FERDINAND  LASSALLE  209 

in  its  demands  for  assistance.  Writing  to  Rustow, 
he  tells  of  a  two  hours'  conversation  with  the 
Bavarian  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  Baron 
von  Schrenk,  who  assures  him  of  his  sympathy, 
says  that  he  cannot  understand  the  objections 
of  von  Donniges,  and  that  in  similar  circum- 
stances he  would  be  proud  of  the  alliance,  al- 
though he  deprecated  the  political  views  of 
Lassalle.  Finally  this  accommodating  Minister 
of  State — here,  at  least,  the  tragi-comedy  is  but 
too  apparent — engages  to  send  a  lawyer,  Dr. 
Haenle,  as  an  official  commissioner  to  negotiate 
with  the  obdurate  father  and  refractory  am- 
bassador. 

Richard  Wagner,  the  great  composer,  the 
Bishop  of  Mayence,  and  noblemen,  generals,  and 
scholars  without  number  were  also  pressed  into 
the  service,  but  in  vain.  The  treachery  of  inti- 
mate friends  more  than  counterbalanced  all  that 
could  be  achieved  by  well-meaning  strangers. 
If  Helen  is  to  be  believed — and  the  charge  is 
not  denied — Lassalle's  friend  Holthoff,  sent  to 
negotiate  in  his  favour,  entreated  her  to  abandon 
Lassalle,  and  to  comply  with  her  parents'  wishes. 
Lassalle,  he  declared,  was  not  in  any  way  a  suitable 


210          THE  PRIVATE  LIFE  OF 

husband,  and  her  father  had  decided  wisely. 
The  poor  girl  lived  in  a  constant  atmosphere  of 
petty  persecution.  Her  father,  she  was  told, 
might  lose  his  post  in  the  Bavarian  service  if  she 
married  this  Socialist,  her  brother  would  have 
absolutely  no  career  open  to  him,  her  sisters  could 
not  marry  in  their  own  rank  of  life ;  in  fact, 
the  whole  family  were  alleged  to  be  entirely 
unhappy  and  miserable  through  her  stubbornness. 
The  following  letter — obviously  dictated — was 
the  not  unnatural  outcome  : — 

To  HERR  LASSALLE. 
SIR, — 

I  have  again  become  reconciled  to  my  betrothed 
bridegroom,  Herr  Yanko  von  Racowitza,  whose  love  I 
have  regained,  and  I  deeply  repent  my  earlier  action. 
I  have  given  notice  of  this  to  your  legal  representative, 
Herr  Holthoff,  and  I  now  declare  to  you  of  my  own  free 
will  and  firm  conviction,  that  there  never  can  be  any 
further  question  of  a  marriage  between  us,  and  that  I 
hold  myself  in  all  respects  to  be  released  from  such  an 
engagement.  I  am  now  firmly  resolved  to  devote  to 
my  aforesaid  betrothed  bridegroom  my  eternal  love  and 
fidelity. 

HELENE  VON  DONNIGES. 

This  letter  came  through  Riistow,  and  Las- 


FERDINAND  LASSALLE  211 

salle  addressed  the  following  reply  to  Helen, 
which,  however,  she  never  received — it  came  in 
fact  into  the  possession  of  the  Countess — a  suffi- 
cient commentary  on  the  duplicity  and  the  false 
friendship  not  only  of  Holthoff,  but  of  Colonel 
Riistow  and  the  Countess  Hatzfeldt  in  this  sad 
affair. 

MUNICH,  Aug.  20,  1864. 
HELEN, — 

My  heart  is  breaking  !  Riistow's  letter  will  kill  me. 
That  you  have  betrayed  me  seems  impossible  !  Even 
now  I  cannot  believe  in  such  shamelessness,  in  such 
frightful  treachery.  It  is  only  for  a  moment  that  some 
one  has  overridden  your  will  and  obliterated  your  true 
self.  It  is  inconceivable  that  this  can  be  your  real,  your 
abiding  determination.  You  cannot  have  thrown  aside 
all  shame,  all  love,  all  fidelity,  all  truth.  If  you  did, 
you  would  dishonour  and  disfigure  humanity.  There 
can  be  no  truth  left  in  the  world  if  you  are  false,  if  you 
are  capable  of  descending  to  this  depth  of  abandonment, 
of  breaking  such  holy  oaths,  of  crushing  my  heart.  Then 
there  is  nothing  more  under  the  sun  in  which  a  man  can 
still  believe. 

Have  you  not  filled  me  with  a  longing  to  possess 
you  ?  Have  you  not  implored  me  to  exhaust  all  proper 
measures,  before  carrying  you  away  from  Wabern  ? 
Have  you  not  by  your  own  lips  and  by  your  letters,  sworn 
to  me  the  most  sacred  oaths  ?  Have  you  not  declared 


212  THE   PRIVATE  LIFE  OF 

to  me,  even  in  your  last  letters,  that  you  were  nothing, 
nothing  but  my  loving  wife,  and  that  no  power  on  earth 
should  stay  your  resolution  ?  And  now,  after  you  have 
bound  this  true  heart  of  mine  to  yourself  so  strongly, 
this  heart  which  when  once  it  gives  itself  away  gives  itself 
for  ever  ;  now,  when  the  battle  has  scarcely  begun,  do  you 
cast  me  off  ?  Do  you  betray  me  ?  Do  you  destroy 
me  ?  If  so,  you  succeed  in  doing  what  else  no  fate  can 
do  ;  you  will  have  crushed  and  shattered  one  of  the 
hardest  of  men,  who  could  withstand  unflinchingly  all 
outward  storms.  No,  I  can  never  survive  such  treachery. 
It  will  kill  me  inwardly  and  outwardly.  It  is  not  possible 
that  you  are  so  dishonourable,  so  shameless,  so  reckless 
of  duty,  so  utterly  unworthy  and  infamous.  If  you  were, 
you  would  deserve  of  me  the  most  deadly  hatred.  You 
would  deserve  the  contempt  of  the  world.  Helen,  it  is 
not  your  own  resolution  which  you  have  communicated 
to  Rustow.  Some  one  has  fastened  it  upon  you  by  a 
coercion  of  your  better  feelings.  Listen  to  me.  If 
you  abide  by  this  resolution,  you  will  lament  it  as  long 
as  you  live. 

"  Helen,  true  to  my  words,  "  Je  me  charge  du  reste"  I 
shall  stay  here,  and  shall  take  all  possible  steps  to  break 
down  your  father's  opposition.  I  have  already  excellent 
means  in  my  hand,  which  will  certainly  not  remain 
unused,  and  if  they  do  not  succeed,  I  shall  still  possess 
thousands  of  other  means,  and  I  will  grind  all  hindrances 
to  dust  if  you  will  but  remain  true  to  me.  If  you  remain 
true,  there  is  no  limit  to  my  strength  or  to  my  love  of 
you,  Je  me  charge  toujours  du  reste !  The  battle  is 


FERDINAND  LASSALLE  213 

hardly  begun,  you  cowardly  girl.  But  can  it  be,  that 
while  I  sit  here,  and  have  already  achieved  what  seemed 
impossible,  you  are  betraying  me,  and  listening  to  the 
flattering  words  of  another  man  ?  Helen,  my  fate  is  in 
your  hands !  But  if  you  destroy  me  by  this  wicked 
treachery,  from  which  I  cannot  recover,  then  may  evil 
fall  upon  you,  and  my  curse  follow  you  to  the  grave  ! 
This  is  the  curse  of  a  true  heart,  of  a  heart  that  you 
wantonly  break,  and  with  which  you  have  cruelly  trifled. 
Yes,  this  curse  of  mine  will  surely  strike  you. 

According  to  Rustow's  message,  you  want  your 
letters  to  be  returned  to  you.  In  any  case,  you  will 
never  receive  them  otherwise  than  from  me — after  a 
personal  interview.  For  I  must  and  will  speak  to  you 
personally,  and  to  you  alone.  I  must  and  will  hear  my 
death-doom  from  your  own  lips.  It  is  only  thus  that  I 
can  believe  what  otherwise  seems  impossible  to  me. 

I  am  continuing  here  to  take  further  steps  to  win 
you,  and  when  I  have  done  all  that  is  possible,  I  shall 
come  to  Geneva.  Helen,  our  destinies  are  entwined  ! 

F.    LASSALLE.1 

It  is  pitiable  to  realize  the  amount  of  false  or 
imperfect  friendship  which  led  Lassalle  on  to 
his  ruin.  Riistow  was  false,  and  Holthoff  was 
false,  if  it  were  not  rather  that  both  looked  upon 
Lassalle's  affection  for  this  girl,  half  his  age,  as  a 

1  Becker's  Enthiillungen,  1868. 


214  THE  PRIVATE  LIFE  OF 

mad  freak  to  be  cured  and  forgotten.  More 
might  have  been  expected  from  the  Countess, 
to  whom  Lassalle  had  given  so  much  pure  and 
disinterested  devotion  ;  but  here  again,  a  sense 
of  maternal  ownership  in  Lassalle  was  sufficient 
to  justify,  in  such  a  woman,  any  means  to  keep 
him  apart  from  this  fancy  of  the  hour.  To  the 
Countess,  however,  Helen  had  turned  for  help, 
and  had  received  a  note  which  had  but  enraged 
her,  and  made  the  breach  between  her  and  Las- 
salle yet  wider.  -  In  the  after  years,  Helen  pub- 
lished one  letter  and  the  Countess  another  as 
the  actual  reply  of  the  Countess  to  Helen's  ap- 
peal, and  the  truth  will  now  never  be  known. 
Meanwhile  Dr.  Arndt,  a  nephew  of  von  Don- 
niges,  had  gone  to  Berlin  to  fetch  Yanko  von 
Racowitza.  Of  Yanko  Helen  has  herself  given 
us  a  pleasant  picture,  as  the  one  man  for  whom 
she  really  cared  until  the  overwhelming  presence 
of  Lassalle  appeared  upon  the  scene,  as  her  one 
friend  during  her  persecution.  Absent  from 
Lassalle's  influence,  it  was  not  strange  that  the 
delicate  Wallachian — even  younger  than  herself 
and  the  slave  of  her  every  whim — should  have  an 
influence  in  her  life.  Had  Lassalle,  however,  had 


FERDINAND  LASSALLE  215 

yet  another  personal  interview  with  her,  there 
can  scarcely  be  a  doubt  that  she  would  have  been 
as  he  had  once  said,  "  as  clay  in  the  hands  of  the 
potter  " — but  this  was  not  to  be.  Lassalle  came 
back  to  Geneva  on  August  23,  and  immediately 
wrote  an  earnest  letter  to  Herr  von  Donniges, 
begging  for  an  interview,  and  stating  that  he 
had  not  the  least  enmity  towards  him  for  what 
had  happened.  With  the  fear  of  the  Foreign 
Minister  at  Munich  before  his  eyes  Helen's 
father  could  not  well  refuse  again,  and  the  inter- 
view took  place.  Lassalle,  according  to  von 
Donniges,  demanded  that  Yanko  von  Racowitza 
should  be  forbidden  the  house,  while  he  himself 
should  have  ready  access  to  Helen.  He  further 
charged  von  Donniges  with  cruelty  to  his  daughter, 
and  was  called  a  liar  to  his  face,  while  even  the 
cook  was  called  upon  the  scene  to  give  her  evi- 
dence as  to  the  domestic  ethics  of  this  family 
circle.  The  letter  of  von  Donniges  to  Dr. 
Haenle  was  clearly  meant  to  be  shown  to  the 
Foreign  Minister,  and  the  wily  diplomatist 
naturally  took  the  opportunity  both  to  justify 
himself  and  to  vilify  Lassalle.  Then  began  a 
painful  dispute  as  to  whether  Herr  von  Donniges 


2i6         THE  PRIVATE   LIFE  OF 

had  ill-used  his  daughter ;  the  overwhelming 
evidence,  which  includes  the  testimony  of  that 
daughter,  written  long  after  her  father's  death, 
tending  to  prove  the  truth  of  Lassalle's  allega- 
tion. Lassalle  meanwhile  found  no  opportunity 
of  approaching  Helen,  and  having  every  reason 
to  believe  that  she  was  entirely  faithless,  gave  up 
the  struggle.  He  referred  to  the  girl  in  language 
characteristic  of  a  despairing  and  jilted  lover, 
and  sent  von  Donniges  a  challenge,  although 
many  years  before,  in  a  political  controversy,  he 
had  declined  to  fight — on  principle.  His  seconds 
were  to  be  General  Becker  and  Colonel  Riistow, 
and  the  latter  has  left  us  a  long  account  of  the 
affair. 

On  the  appointed  day,  August  22,  Riistow 
went  everywhere  to  look  for  Herr  von  Donniges, 
but  the  minister  had  fled  to  Berne.  Riistow 
then  saw  Lassalle  at  the  rooms  of  the  Countess 
von  Hatzfeldt.  Lassalle  mentioned  that  he  had 
that  morning  had  his  challenge  accepted  by  von 
Racowitza,  whose  seconds  were  Count  Keyserling 
and  Dr.  Arndt.  Riistow  insisted,  both  to  Las- 
salle and  to  Racowitza's  friends,  that  von  Don- 
niges should  have  priority,  but  was  overruled ; 


FERDINAND  LASSALLE  217 

and  it  was  agreed  that  the  duel  should  be  fought 
that  very  evening.  Riistow  protested  that  he 
could  not  find  another  second  in  so  short  a  time 
— General  Becker  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
available — but  at  length  it  was  arranged  that 
General  Bethlem  should  be  asked  to  fill  the  office, 
and  that  the  duel  should  take  place  on  the  fol- 
lowing morning,  August  28.  There  seems  to 
have  been  considerable  difficulty  in  finding 
suitable  pistols,  and  at  the  last  moment  General 
Bethlem  declined  to  be  a  second,  and  Herr  von 
Hofstetten  consented  to  act.  Riistow  called  upon 
Lassalle  at  the  Victoria  Hotel  at  five  o'clock.  At 
half-past  six  the  party  started  for  Carouge,  a 
village  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Geneva,  which 
they  reached  an  hour  later.  Lassalle  was  quite 
cheerful,  and  perfectly  confident  that  he  would 
come  unharmed  out  of  the  conflict.  The  op- 
ponents faced  one  another  and  Racowitza  wounded 
Lassalle,  who  was  carried  by  Riistow  and  Dr. 
Seiler  to  a  coach,  and  thence  to  the  Victoria 
Hotel,  Geneva.  He  suffered  dreadfully  both 
then  and  afterwards,  and  was  only  relieved  by  a 
plentiful  use  of  opium.  Three  days  later,  on 
Wednesday,  August  31,  1864,  he  died. 


2i 8  THE  PRIVATE  LIFE  OF 

Was  it  the  chance  shot  of  a  delicate  boy  that 
killed  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  or  was  it  a  planned  attack 
upon  one  who  loved  the  people  ?  This  last  view 
was  taken  and  is  still  taken  by  many  of  his  fol- 
lowers ;  but  it  is  needless  to  say  that  it  has  no 
foundation  in  fact.  Lassalle  was  killed  by  a 
chance  shot,  and  killed  in  a  duel  which  had  not 
even  the  doubtful  justification  of  hatred  of  his 
opponent.  "  Count  me  no  longer  as  a  rival ; 
for  you  I  have  nothing  but  friendship,"  were  the 
words  written  to  Racowitza  at  the  moment  that 
he  challenged  von  Donniges,  and  he  declared  on 
his  death-bed  that  he  died  by  his  own  hand. 

The  revolutionists  of  all  lands  assembled  around 
his  dead  body,  which  was  embalmed  by  order  of 
the  Countess.  This  woman  talked  loudly  of 
vengeance,  called  not  only  von  Racowitza  but 
Helen  a  murderer,1  little  thinking  that  posterity 
would  judge  her  more  hardly  than  Helen.  She 
proposed  to  take  the  corpse  in  solemn  procession 
through  Germany ;  but  an  order  from  the  Prus- 
sian Government  disturbed  her  plans,  and  at 
Breslau,  Lassalle's  native  town,  it  was  allowed 
1  Brief e  an  Hans  von  Billow,  1885. 


FERDINAND   LASSALLE  219 

to  rest.  Lassalle  is^buried  in  the  family  vault 
in  the  Jewish  Cemetery,  and  a  simple  monument 
bears  the  inscription  : 

HERE    RESTS    WHAT    IS    MORTAL 
OF 

FERDINAND    LASSALLE, 

THE 

THINKER  AND  THE  FIGHTER. 

To  understand  the  whole  tragedy  and  to 
justify  its  great  victim  is  to  feel  something  of  the 
strain  which  comes  to  every  thinker  and  fighter 
who,  like  Lassalle,  writes  and  speaks  persistently 
to  vast  audiences,  often  against  great  odds,  and 
always  with  the  prospect  of  a  prison  before  him. 
That  his  nerves  were  utterly  unstrung,  that  he 
was  not  his  real  self  in  those  last  days,  is  but  too 
evident.  Armed,  as  he  claimed,  with  the  entire 
culture  of  his  century,  a  maker  of  history  if  ever 
there  was  one,  he  became  the  victim  of  a  love 
drama  which  I  suppose  that  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold 
would  describe  as  of  the  surgeon's  apprentice 
order  :  but  which,  apart  from  his  political 
creed,  will  always  endear  him  to  men  and  women 
who  have  "  lived  and  loved." 


22O 

And  what  shall  we  say  of  Helen  von  Don- 
niges  ?  Her  own  story  is  surely  one  of  the  most 
romantic  ever  written.  In  My  Relation  to  Ferdi- 
nand Lassalle,  she  tells  how  Yanko  broke  to  her 
the  news  that  he  was  going  to  fight  Lassalle,  and 
how  much  she  grieved.  "  Lassalle  will  inevitably 
kill  Yanko,"  she  thought ;  and  she  pitied  him, 
but  her  pity  was  not  without  calculation.  "  When 
Yanko  is  dead  and  they  bring  his  body  here, 
there  will  be  a  stir  in  the  house,"  she  said,  "  and 
I  can  then  fly  to  Lassalle."  But  the  hours  flew 
by,  and  finally  Yanko  came  to  tell  her  that  he 
had  wounded  his  opponent.  For  the  moment, 
and  indeed  until  after  Lassalle's  death,  she  hated 
her  successful  lover  ;  but  a  little  later  his  un- 
doubted goodness,  his  tenderness  and  patience, 
won  her  heart.  They  were  married,  but  he  died 
within  a  year,  of  consumption.  Being  disowned 
by  her  relations,  Helen  then  settled  in  Berlin, 
and  studied  for  the  stage.  She  herself  relates 
how  at  Breslau  on  one  occasion,  when  acting  a 
boy's  part  in  one  of  Moser's  comedies,  some  of 
Lassalle's  oldest  friends  being  present  remarked 
upon  her  likeness  to  Lassalle  in  his  youth,  a  re- 
semblance on  which  she  and  Lassalle  had  more 


FERDINAND  LASSALLE  221 

than  once  prided  themselves.  At  a  later  date 
Frau  von  Racowitza  married  a  Russian  Social- 
ist, S.  E.  Shevitch,  then  resident  in  America. 
M.  Shevitch  returned  to  Russia  a  few  years  after 
this  and  lived  with  his  wife  at  Riga.  Those  who 
have  seen  Madame  Shevitch  describe  her  as  one 
of  the  most  fascinating  women  they  have  ever 
met.  She  and  her  husband  were  very  happy 
in  their  married  life.  Madame  Shevitch  is  now 
living  in  Munich.  Our  great  novelist  and  poet 
George  Meredith  has  immortalized  her  in  his 
Tragic  Comedians. 


LORD  ACTON'S  LIST  OF  THE 
HUNDRED  BEST  BOOKS 


VIII 

LORD  ACTON'S  LIST  OF  THE 
HUNDRED  BEST  BOOKS 

EVERY  one  has  heard  of  Lord  Avebury's  (Sir  John 
Lubbock's)  Hundred  Best  Books,  not  every  one 
of  Lord  Acton's.  It  is  the  privilege  of  the  Pall 
Mall  Magazine  l  to  publish  this  latter  list,  the 
final  impression  as  to  reading  of  one  of  the  most 
scholarly  men  that  England  has  known  in  our 
time.  The  list  in  question  is,  as  it  were,  an 
omitted  chapter  of  a  book  that  was  one  of  the 
successes  of  its  year — The  Letters  of  Lord  Acton 
to  Miss  Mary  Gladstone — published  by  Mr. 
George  Allen.  That  series  of  letters  made  very 
pleasant  reading.  They  showed  Lord  Acton 
not  as  a  Dryasdust,  but  as  a  very  human  personage 
indeed,  with  sympathies  invariably  in  the  right 
place. 

1  Reprinted  with  alterations  from  the  Pall  Mall  Magazine 
of  July,  1905,  by  kind  permission  of  the  proprietor  and  editor  ; 
and  of  Miss  Mary  Gladstone  (Mrs.  Drew)  to  whom  the  list 
of  books  was  sent  in  a  letter. 

i.M.  226  - 


226          LORD    ACTON'S  LIST  OF 

Nor  can  his  literary  interests  be  said  to  have 
been  restricted,  for  he  read  history  and  biography 
with  avidity,  and  probably  knew  more  of  theology 
than  any  other  layman  of  modern  times.  In 
imaginative  literature,  however,  his  critical  in- 
stinct was  perhaps  less  keen.  He  called  Heine 
"  a  bad  second  to  Schiller  in  poetry,"  which  is 
absurd  ;  and  he  thought  George  Eliot  the  greatest 
of  modern  novelists.  In  arriving  at  the  latter 
judgment  he  had  the  excuse  of  personal  friend- 
ship and  admiration  for  a  woman  whose  splendid 
intellectual  gifts  were  undeniable. 

In  one  letter  we  find  Lord  Acton  discussing 
with  Miss  Gladstone  the  eternal  question  of  the 
hundred  best  books.  Sir  John  Lubbock  had 
complained  to  her  of  the  lack  of  a  guide  or  supreme 
authority  on  the  choice  of  books.  Lord  Acton 
had  replied  that,  "  although  he  had  something  to 
learn  on  the  graver  side  of  human  knowledge," 
Sir  John  would  execute  his  own  scheme  better 
than  almost  anybody.  We  all  know  that  Sir 
John  Lubbock  attempted  this  at  a  lecture  de- 
livered at  the  Great  Ormond  Street  Working 
Men's  College  ;  that  that  lecture  has  been  re- 
printed again  and  again  in  a  book  entitled  The 


THE  HUNDRED   BEST   BOOKS      227 

Pleasures  of  Life,  and  that  the  publishers  have  sold 
more  than  two  hundred  thousand  copies — a  kind 
of  success  that  might  almost  make  some  of  our 
popular  novelists  turn  green  with  envy.  Later 
on  in  the  correspondence  Lord  Acton  quoted 
one  of  the  popes,  who  said  that  "  fifty  books  would 
include  every  good  idea  in  the  world."  "  But," 
continued  Lord  Acton,  "  literature  has  doubled 
since  then,  and  it  would  be  hard  to  do  without  a 
hundred." 

Lord  Acton  was  possessed  of  the  happy  thought 
that  he  would  like  some  of  his  friends  and 
acquaintances  each  to  name  his  ideal  hundred 
best  books — as  for  example  Bishop  Lightfoot,  Dean 
Church,  Dean  Stanley,  Canon  Liddon,  Professor 
Max  Muller,  Mr.  J.  R.  Lowell,  Professor  E.  A. 
Freeman,  Mr.  W.  E.  H.  Lecky,  Mr.  John  Morley, 
Sir  Henry  Maine,  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  Lord 
Tennyson,  Cardinal  Newman,  Mr.  Gladstone, 
Matthew  Arnold,  Professor  Goldwin  Smith, 
Mr.  R.  H.  Hutton,  Mr.  Mark  Pattison,  and  Mr. 
J.  A.  Symonds.  Strange  to  say,  he  thought  there 
would  be  a  surprising  agreement  between  these 
writers  as  to  which  were  the  hundred  best 
books.  I  am  all  but  certain,  however,  that 


228          LORD    ACTON'S  LIST  OF 

there  would  not  have  been  more  than  twenty 
books  in  common  between  rival  schools  of 
thought — the  secular  and  the  ecclesiastical — 
between,  let  us  say,  Mr.  John  Morley  and  Car- 
dinal Newman.  But  it  is  probable  that  not  one 
of  these  eminent  men  would  have  furnished  a 
list  with  any  similarity  whatever  to  the  remainder. 
Each  would  have  written  down  his  own  hundred 
favourites,  and  herein  may  be  admitted  is  an 
evidence  of  the  futility  of  all  such  attempts.  The 
best  books  are  the  books  that  have  helped  us  most 
to  see  life  in  all  its  complex  bearings,  and  each  indi- 
vidual needs  a  particular  kind  of  mental  food  quite 
unlike  the  diet  that  best  stimulates  his  neighbour. 
Writing  more  than  a  year  later,  Lord  Acton 
said  that  he  had  just  drawn  out  a  list  of  recom- 
mended authors  for  his  son,  as  being  the  company 
he  would  like  him  to  keep  ;  but  this  list  is  not 
available — it  is  not  the  one  before  me.  That 
was  compiled  yet  another  twelve  months  after- 
wards, when  we  find  Lord  Acton  sending  to 
Miss  Mary  Gladstone  (Mrs.  Drew)  his  own 
ideal  "hundred  best  books."  This  list  is  now 
printed  for  the  first  time.  Evidently  Miss  Glad- 
stone remonstrated  with  her  friend  over  the 


THE   HUNDRED    BEST   BOOKS      229 

character  of  the  list ;  but  Lord  Acton  defended 
it  as  being  in  his  judgment  really  the  hundred 
best  books,  apart  from  works  on  physical  science — 
that  it  treated  of  principles  that  every  thoughtful 
man  ought  to  understand,  and  was  calculated, 
in  fact,  to  give  one  a  clear  view  of  the  various 
forces  that  make  history.  "  We  are  not  con- 
sidering," he  adds,  "  what  will  suit  an  untutored 
savage  or  an  illiterate  peasant  woman,  who  would 
never  come  to  an  end  of  the  Imitation" 

However,  here  is  Lord  Acton's  list,  which  Mrs. 
Drew  has  been  kind  enough  to  place  in  the  hands 
of  the  Editor  of  the  Pall  Mall  Magazine.  I  give 
also  Lord  Acton's  comment  with  which  it  opens, 
and  I  add  in  footnotes  one  or  two  facts  about 
each  of  the  authors : 

"  In  answer  to  the  question  :  Which  are  the  hundred 
"  best  books  in  the  world  ? 

"  Supposing  any  English  youth,  whose  education  is 
"  finished,  who  knows  common  things,  and  is  not  train- 
"  ing  for  a  profession. 

"  To  perfect  his  mind  and  open  windows  in  every 
"  direction,  to  raise  him  to  the  level  of  his  age  so  that  he 
"  may  know  the  (20  or  30)  forces  that  have  made  our  world 
"  what  it  is  and  still  reign  over  it,  to  guard  him  against  sur- 
prises and  against  the  constant  sources  of  error  within, 


230  LORD    ACTON'S  LIST  OF 

"  to  supply  him  both  with  the  strongest  stimulants  and 
"the  surest  guides,  to  give  force  and  fullness  and  clearness 
"  and  sincerity  and  independence  and  elevation  and 
"generosity  and  serenity  to  his  mind,  that  he  may 
"  know  the  method  and  law  of  the  process  by  which 
"  error  is  conquered  and  truth  is  won,  discerning  know- 
"  ledge  from  probability  and  prejudice  from  belief, 
"  that  he  may  learn  to  master  what  he  rejects  as  fully 
"as  what  he  adopts,  that  he  may  understand  the 
"  origin  as  well  as  the  strength  and  vitality  of  systems 
"and  the  better  motive  of  men  who  are  wrong,  to 
"steel  him  against  the  charm  of  literary  beauty  and 
"  talent ;  so  that  each  book,  thoroughly  taken  in,  shall 
"  be  the  beginning  of  a  new  life,  and  shall  make  a  new 
"man  of  him — this  list  is  submitted": — 

1.  Plato — Laws — Steinhart's  Introduction.1 

2.  Aristotle — Politics — Susemihl's  Commentary.2 

3.  Epictetus — Encheiridion — Commentary  of  Simplicius.3 

4.  St.  Augustine — Letters.* 

1  Plato.  (B.C.  427-347)  Dr.  Jowett  has  translated  the  Laws. 
See  The  Dialogues  of  Plato  With  Analysis  and  Introductions  by 
Benjamin  Jowett.  In  Five  Volumes.  Vol.  V.  The  Clarendon  Press. 

3  Aristotle  (B.C.  384-322).  Dr.  Jowett  has  translated  the 
Politics  into  English.  Two  volumes.  The  Clarendon  Press. 

3  Epictetus  (born  A.D.  50,  died  in  Rome,  but  date  un- 
known). His  Encheiridion,  a  collection  of  Maxims,  was  made 
by  his  pupil  Arrian.  The  best  translation  into  English  is  that 
by  George  Long,  first  published  in  1877.  (George  Bell.) 

*  St.  Augustine  (A.D.  353-430).  See  a  translation  of  his 
Le tiers  edited  by  Mary  Allies,  published  in  1890. 


THE    HUNDRED    BEST   BOOKS      231 

5.  St.  Vincent's  Commonitorium.'1 

6.  Hugo  of  S.  Victor — De  Sacramentis.2 

7.  St.  Bonaventura — Breviloquium? 

8.  St.    Thomas    Aquinas — Summa    contra    Gentiles.* 

1  St.    Vincent    of    Lerins — Vincentius    Lirinensis.     Native 
of  Gaul.     Monk  in  monastery  of  Lerinat,  opposite  Cannes. 
Died  about  450.     In  434  wrote  Commonitorium  adversus  pro- 
fanus  omnium  heretiecrum  novitates.     It  contains   the   famous 
threefold  text  of    orthodoxy — "  quod    ubique,  quod  semper, 
quod  ad  omnibus  creditum  est."     Printed  at  Paris,  1663  and 
later.     Also  in  Mignes,   Patrologia   Latina,  Vol.  50.     Hallam 
calls  the  text  "  the  celebrated  rule."     It  is  all  now  remembered 
of  St.  V.  by  most  educated  men.    It  is  shown  to  be  of  no  practical 
value  in  an  able  criticism  by  Sir  G.  C.  Lewis,  Influence  of 
Authority  in  Matters  of  Opinion,  2nd  ed.,  1875,   p.   57.     Mr 
Gladstone  reviewed  this  work  of  Lewis,  Nineteenth  Century 
March,   1877. 

2  Hugo  of  St.  Victor  (1097-1141),  a  celebrated  Mystic  born 
at  Ypres  in  Flanders.     His  collected  works  first  appeared    at 
Rouen  in  1648. 

3  St.  Bonaventura  (A.D.  1221-1274).     Born  at  Bagnarea,  near 
Orvieto,  in  Tuscany,  became  a  Franciscan  monk  and  afterwards 
a    Professor  of   Theology  at  Paris,  where  he  gained  the  title 
of  the  "  Seraphic  Doctor."     Made  a  Cardinal  by  Pope  Gregory 
X,    who  sent    him  as    his  Legate    to  the   Council  at  Lyons, 
where    he  died.       In    1482  he  was  canonized.      His  writings 
appeared  at  Rome  in  1588-96. 

4  St.    Thomas    Aquinas    (A.D.    1225-1274).     The    Angelic 
Doctor  was  born  at  the  castle  of  Rocca-Secca  near  Aquino, 
between  Rome  and  Naples.     Entered  the  Dominican  Order 
in  1243.     Went  to  Paris  in  1252  and  attained  great  distinction 


232         LORD    ACTON'S   LIST  OF 

9.  Dante — Divina  Commedta.1 

10.  Raymund  of   Sabunde — Theologia  Naturalis.2 

11.  Nicholas    of   Cusa — Concordantia    Catholica.3 

12.  Edward  Reuss — The  Bible* 

as  a  theologian.  His  Summa  Theologies  was  followed  by  his 
Summa  contra  Gentiles.  His  works  were  first  collected  in  17 
volumes  in  1570.  Aquinas  was  canonized  in  1323. 

1  Dante  (A.D.  1265-1321).     The  Divina  Commedia  has  been 
translated  into  English  by  many  scholars.     The  best  known 
version   is  the   poetical  renderings  of  H.  F.  Gary  (1772-1844) 
and  W.  W.  Longfellow  (1807-1882)  and  the  prose  translations 
(the  "  Inferno  "  only)  of  John  Carlyle    (1801-79)    and  A.  J. 
Butler  in  whose  three  volumes   of  the  "  Purgatory,"  "  Para- 
dise "    and  "  Inferno "   the  original    Italian   may  be  studied 
side  by  side  with  the  translation. 

2  Raymund   of   Sabunde,  a   physician   of   Toulouse   of   the 
fifteenth   century.      He  published   his    Theologia  naturalis   at 
Strassburg  in   1496.      "  I  found  the  concerts  of  the  author  to 
be  excellent,  the  contexture  of  his  works  well   followed,   and 
his  project   full  of   pietie  "  writes  Montaigne  in  telling  us  of 
his  father's  request  that  he   should  translate   Sabunde's  Theo- 
logia   naturalis.     Florio's  Translation.     Book  II,  Ch.  XII. 

3  Nicholas  of  Cusa  (A.D.  1401-1464)  was   born  at  Kues  on 
the  Moselle.     His  De  Concordantia  Catholica  was  a  treatise  in 
favour  of  the  Councils  of  the  Church  and  against  the  authority 
of  the  Pope.     He  was  made  a  Cardinal  by  Pope  Nicholas  V. 

4  Edward  Reuss  (1804-1891),  a  professor  of  Theology,  who 
was  born   at   Strassburg.     Published  his   History   of  the  New 
Testament  in  1842  and  his  History  of  the  Old  Testament  in  1881. 
The  Bible,  a  new  translation  with  Introduction  and  Commentaries, 
appeared  in  19  volumes  between  1874  and  1881. 


THE    HUNDRED    BEST   BOOKS      233 

13.  Pascal's  Pens6es — Havefs  Edition.* 

14.  Malebranche,   De   la   Recherche   de   la    Ferite.* 

15.  Baader — Speculative  Dogmatik? 

1 6.  Molitor — Philosophic  der  Geschichte* 

17.  Astie — Esprit  de  Vinet? 

1  Pascal,   Blaise   (1623-1662).      Born   at   Clermont-Ferrand 
in  Auvergne.     His  Letters  to  a  Provincial,  written  in  1656-7, 
made  his  fame  by  their  attack  on  the  Jesuists.     His  Pensees 
appeared  after  his  death,  in  1669,  and  they  have  reappeared  in 
many  forms,  "  edited  "  by  many  schools  of  thought.     The 
edition  edited  by  Ernest  Havet  (1813-1889)  was  published  in 
1852. 

2  Malebranche,  Nicolas  (1638-1715).      Born  in  Paris.     The 
works  of  Descartes  drew  him  to  philosophy.  The  famous  dictum, 
"  Malebranche  saw  all  things  in  God,"  had  reference  to  his 
treatise,  De  la  Recherche  de  la  Verite,  first  published  in  1674. 

3  Baader,    Franz    (1765-1841).     A  speculative    philosopher 
and  theologian,  born  at  Munich,  who  endeavoured  to  reconcile 
the  tenets  of  the  Church  of  Rome  with   philosophy.     Of   his 
many  works  his  Vorlesungen  iiber  Spekulative  Dogmatik  is  here 
selected.     It  appeared  between  1828  and  1838  in  five  parts. 

4  Molitor,    Franz    Joseph     (1779-1860).     A    philosophical 
writer,  born  near  Frankfurt.     His  Philosophie  der  Geschichte, 
oder  iiber  Tradition  was  published  in  4  volumes  between  1827 
and  1853. 

5  Astie,  Jean    Frederic  (1822-1894).    A  French  Protesant 
theologian,  who  held  a  Chair  of  Theology  in  New  York  from 
1848  to   1853.     In   1856  became  a  Professor  in  Switzerland. 
He  published  his  Esprit  d'Alexandre  Vinet  at  Paris  in  1861. 
In    1882   appeared     his  Le  Vinet  de    la   legende  et  celui  de 
Phistoire. 


234          LORD   ACTON'S  LIST  OF 

18.  Piinjer — Geschichte    der    Religions-philoso-phie.'1 

19.  Rothe — Theologische  Ethik? 

20.  Martensen — Die  Christliche  Ethik.3 

21.  Oettingen — Moralstatistik* 

22.  Hartmann — Phanomenologie    des    sittlichen   Bewusst- 
seins.5 

1  Piinjer,     Bernard     (1850-1884).      A     theologian     whose 
Geschichte  der  Religions-philosophie  was  much  the  vogue  with 
theological  students  at  the  time  of  its  publication  in   1880. 
It  was  reissued  in  1887  in  an  English  translation  by  W.  Hastie, 
under  the  title,  History  of  the  Christian  Philosophy  of  Religion 
from  the  Reformation  to  Kant.     Piinjer  also  wrote  Die  Religions- 
lehre  Kanfs,  published  at  Jena  in  1874. 

2  Rothe,   Richard   (1799-1867).      A  Protestant  theologian. 
Was  for  a  time  preacher  to  the  Prussian  Embassy  in  Rome,  and 
afterwards  in  succession   Professor  of  Theology  at  Wittenberg, 
at  Heidelberg,  and  at  Bonn.     His  Theologische  Ethik  appeared 
at  Wittenberg  in  3  volumes  between  1845  and  1848. 

3  Martensen,  Hans  Lassen  (1808-1884).      A  Danish  theo- 
logian, born  at  Fleusburg  and  died  at  Copenhagen,  where  he 
was  long   a   Professor  of  Theology.     He   became   Bishop   of 
Zeeland.     Die  Christliche  Ethik  was  one  of  many  works  by 
him.     He  also  wrote  Die  Christliche  Dogmatik,  Die  Christliche 
Taufe,  and  a  Life  of  Jakob  Bohme. 

4  Oettingen,   Alexander   von    (1827-1905).      A    theologian 
and  statistician  principally  associated  with  Dorpat  in  Livonia, 
where  he  studied  from  1845  to  1849.   He  became  Professor  of 
Theology  at  its  famous  University.     His  principal  book  is 
entitled,  Die  Moralstatistik  in  ihrer  Bedeutungfiir  eine  Sozial- 
ethik. 

5  Hartmann,  Karl  Robert  Eduard  von  (1842-1906).      Born 


THE    HUNDRED    BEST   BOOKS      235 

23.  Leibniz — Letters  edited  by  Klopp.1 

24.  Brandis — Gescbichte  der  Philosophies 

25.  Fischer — Franz  Bacon.3 

26.  Zeller — Neuere  Deutsche  Philosophies 

in  Berlin,  the  son  of  General  Robert  von  Hartmann,  and  served 
for  some  time  in  the  Artillery  of  the  German  Army.  He  has 
written  many  philosophical  works.  His  Phdnomenologie  des 
sittlichlen  Bewusstseins  was  published  in  Berlin  in  1879. 

1  Leibniz,     Gottfried     Wilhelm      (1646-1716).      Born     at 
Leipzig  and  died  at  Hanover.     Visited  Paris  and  London,  and 
became  acquainted  with  Boyle  and  Newton.     In  1676  appointed 
to   a  librarianship  at  Hanover.     His  philosophical  views  are 
mainly  derived  from  his  letters.    The  edition  of  the  Letters, 
edited  by  Ouno   Klopp   (1822-1903),   appeared  at   Hanover 
between  1862  and  1884  in  1 1  volumes. 

2  Brandis,  Christian  August   (1790-1867).      A  philosopher 
and  philologist,  born  in    Hildesheim,  studied    in  Gottingen 
and  Kiel.    Accompanied    Niebuhr  as  Secretary  to  the  Em- 
bassy to  Rome  in  1816.     In  1822  became  Professor  of  Philosophy 
in  Bonn.     His  Handbuch  der  Geschichte  der   griechischromischen 
Philosophie,  doubtless  here   referred  to   by   Lord  Acton,  was 
published  in  Berlin  at  long  intervals  (1835-66)  in  3  volumes. 

3  Fischer,  Kuno  (1824-1907).      Born  at  Sandewalde  in  Silesia. 
Deprived  of  his  professorship  of  philosophy  at  Heidelberg  by 
the  Baden  Government  in  1853  on  account  of  charge  of  Pan- 
theism,  but  recalled  to  Heidelberg  in   1872.     His  principal 
book  is   Geschichte  der  Neuern  Philosophie  (1852-1903).     His 
Franz  Baco  von  Verulam  appeared  in  1856,  and  Francis  Bacon 
und  seine  Schule  made  the  loth  volume  of  his  Geschichte. 

4  Zeller,   Eduard   (1814-  still     living).      Theologian     and 
historian  of  philosophy.      Studied    at  Tubingen  and  Berlin, 
became  Professor  of  Theology  at  Berne,  afterwards  held  chairs 


236  LORD    ACTON'S  LIST  OF 

27.  Bartholomess — Doctrines  Religieuses  de  la  Philosophic 
Moderns. * 

28.  Guyon — Morale  Anglaise? 

29.  Ritschl — Entstehung   der   Altkatholischen   Kirche* 

30.  Loening — Geschichte  des  Kirchenrechts.* 

successively  at  Heidelberg  and  Berlin.  His  many  works 
include  The  Philosophy  of  Ancient  Greece,  Platonic  Studies 
and  Zwingli's  Theological  System. 

1  Bartholomess,  Christian    (1815-1856).    A  French  philo- 
sopher, born  at  Geiselbronn  in  Alsace.     From  1853  Professor 
of  Philosophy  at  Strassburg.    Died  at  Nuremberg.   Wrote  a  Life 
of  Giordano  Bruno,  and   Philosophical  History  of  the   Prussian 
Academy,  particularly  under  Frederick  the  Great,  as  well  as  the 
Histoire  critique  des  doctrines  religieuses  de  la  philosophic  moderne, 
published  in  2  volumes  in  1855. 

2  Madame  Guyon  (1648-1717)    was  born  at  Montargis  in 
France,  and  her  maiden  name  was  Jeanne  Marie  Bouvieres  de  la 
Mo  the.     She  married  at   16  years  of  age    Jacques   Guyon. 
Left  a  widow,  she  devoted  herself  to  a  religious  mysticism  which 
raised  up  endless  controversies  during  the  succeeding  years. 
She  was  compelled  to  leave  Geneva  because  her  doctrines 
were  declared  to  be  heretical.   She  was  imprisoned  in  the  Bastile 
from  1695  to  1702.     Her  works  are  contained  in  39  volumes. 

3  Ritschl,   Albrecht   (1822-1889).   Professor   of    Theology, 
born   in    Berlin,    died   in   Gottingen.     Became   Professor   of 
Theology  in  Bonn  and  later  in  Gottingen.    He  wrote  many 
books.    His   Die  Entstehung  der  altkatholischen   Kirche    first 
appeared  in  1850. 

4  Loening,   Edgar   (1843-  still  living),  was   born  in  Paris. 
Has  held  professorial  chairs  at    Strassburg,  Dorpat,  Rostock, 
and  at  Halle.    His  Geschichte  des  deutschen  Kirchenrechts  first 
appeared  in  1878. 


THE    HUNDRED    BEST   BOOKS      237 

31.  Baur — Vorlesungen  uber   Dogmengeschichte.* 

32.  Fenelon — Correspondence? 

33.  Newman's  Theory  of  Development.* 

34.  Mozley's  University  Sermons* 

1  Baur,  Ferdinand  Christian  (1792-1860).   Born  at  Schmiden, 
near  Kannstatt.     Held  various  theological  chairs  before  that 
of  Tubingen,  which  he  occupied  from  1826  until  his  death. 
He  wrote  a  great  number  of  theological  works,  of  which  his 
Vorlesungen  uber  die  christliche  Dogmengeschichte  was  published 
in  Leipzig  in  3  volumes  between  1865  and  1867. 

2  Fenelon,  Francois  de  Salignac  de  la  Mothe  (1651-1715). 
Born  in  Perigord  in  France,  and   famous  alike  as  a  divine  and 
as   a  man   of   letters,  his  Telemaque   living  in  literature.     His 
controversy  over  Madame  Guyon  is  well  known.     Louis  XIV 
made  him  preceptor  to  his  grandson,  the  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
and   later   Archbishop   of   Cambrai.     His    Correspondence  was 
published  between  1727  and  1729  in  1 1  volumes. 

3  Newman,  John  Henry  (1801-1890).     A   famous  Cardinal 
of  the  Church  of  Rome ;  born  in  London,  educated  at  Trinity 
College,  Oxford  ;  first  Vicar  of  St.  Mary's,  Oxford  ;  took  part 
in  the  Tractarian  Movement  with  some  of  the  Tracts  for  the 
Times.     His  Apologia  pro  Vita  Sud  appeared  in  1864,  his  Dream 
of  Gerontiusm  1865.      There  is    no  Theory  of  Development  by 
Newman.    His  Essay  on  the  Development  of  Christian  Doctrine 
appeared  in  1845,  and  was  replied  to  by  the  Rev.  J.  B.  Mozley 
in  a  volume  bearing  the  title  The  Theory  of  Developmtnt. 

4  Mozley,  James  Bowling  (1813-1878).  A  Church  of  England 
divine ;  born  at  Gainsborough,  educated  at  Oriel  College,  Oxford ; 
became  Vicar  of  Old  Shoreham,  Canon  of  Worcester,  and,  in 
1871,  Regius   Professor  of   Divinity  at  Oxford.     His   Oxford 
University  Sermons  appeared  in  1876. 


238  LORD    ACTON'S  LIST  OF 

35.  Schneckenburger — Fergleicbende  Darstellung}- 

36.  Hundeshagen — Kircbenvorfassungsgeschichte? 

37.  Schweizer — Protestantische  Centraldogmen? 

38.  Gass — Geschicbte  der  Lutherischen  Dogmatik* 

39.  Cart — Histoire    du     Mouvement    Religieux    dans    le 

Canton  de  Faud* 

1  Schneckenburger,    Matthias  (1804-1848).      A    Protestant 
theologian ;  born  at  Thalheim  and  died  in  Berne,  where  he  was 
for  a  time  Professor  of  Theology  at  the  newly  founded  Uni- 
versity.    His    Vergleichende    Darstellung    des    lutherischen    und 
reformierten  Lehrbegriffs  was  published  in  Stuttgart  in  2  volumes 
in  1855. 

2  Hundeshagen,  Karl  Bernhard  (1810-1872).     A  Protestant 
theologian    who    held    a    professorship    in    Berne,    later  in 
Heidelberg  and  finally  in  Bonn,  where  he  died.      His  many 
works  included  one  upon  the  Conflict  between  the  Lutheran, 
the  Calvinistic,  and  the  Zwinglian  Churches.      His  Beitrdge 
zur  Kirchenverfassungsgeschichte  und  Kirchenpolitik  insbesondere 
des  Protestantismus  was  published  at  Wiesbaden    in   1864  in 
I  volume. 

3  Schweizer,   Alexander   (1808-1888).       A   theologian   and 
preacher  who  studied  in  Zurich  and  Berlin.     He  wrote  his  Auto- 
biography which  was  published  in  Zurich  the  year  after  his  death. 
His   book,    Die    protestantischen    Centraldogmen    innerhalb    der 
reformierten  Kirche,  appeared  in  Zurich  in  2  volumes  in  1854 
and  1856. 

4  Gass,  Wilhelm  (1813-1 889).    A  Protestant  theologian ;  born 
at  Breslau  and  died  in  Heidelberg,  where  he  held  a  theological 
chair.     His  best-known  book  is  his  Geschichte  der  protestantischen 
Dogmatik,  published  in  Berlin    between  1854  an<^  ^67   in  4 
volumes,  and  to  this  Lord  Acton  doubtless  refers. 

5  Cart,  Jacques  Louis  (1826-   probably  still  living).     A  Swiss 


THE   HUNDRED    BEST   BOOKS      239 

40.  Blondel — De  la  Primaute.1 

41.  Le  Blanc  de  Beaulieu — Theses.2 

42.  Thiersch — Vorlesungen  uber  Katholizismus? 

43.  Mohler — Neue  Untersucbungen* 

pastor  ;  born  in  Geneva  ;  the  author  of  many  books,  of  which 
the  one  named  by  Lord  Acton  is  fully  enti tied,  Histoire  du  mouve- 
ment  religieux  et  ecclesiastique  dans  le  canton  de  Vaud,  pendant 
la  premiere  moitie  du  XIXe  siecle.  It  appeared  between 
1871  and  1880  in  6  volumes. 

1  Blondel,  David  (1590-1655).      Born  at  Chalons-sur-Marne 
in  France  ;  a  learned  theologian  and  historian  who  defended  the 
Protestant  position  against  the  Catholics.     Was  Professor  of 
History  at  Amsterdam.     His  De  la  primaute  de  l'£glise  appeared 
in  1641. 

2  Le   Blanc   de   Beaulieu,   Louis   (1614-1675).      A   French 
Protestant  theologian  who  enjoyed  the  consideration  of  both 
parties  and  was  approached  by  Turenne  with  a  view  to  a 
reunion  of  the  churches.     His  position  was  sustained  before 
the  Protestant  Academy  at  Sedan  with  certain  theses  pub- 
lished under  the  title  of  Theses  Sedanenzes  in  1683. 

3  Thiersch,   Heinrich   Wilhelm   Josias   (1817-1885).      Born 
in  Munich  and  died  in  Basle  ;  held  for  a  time  a  Professorship 
of  Theology  in  Marburg,  then  became  the  principal  pastor  of 
the  Irvingite  Church  in  Germany,  preaching  in  many  cities. 
He   wrote   many  books.     His  Vorlesungen    uber  Katholizismus 
und  Protestantismus  appeared  first  in   1846. 

4  Mohler,  Johann  Adam  (1796-1838).     Born  in  Igersheim 
and  died  in  Munich.     A  Catholic  theologian   and  Professor 
of  Theology  at  Tubingen.     His  Neue  Untersuchungen  der  Lehr- 
gegensdtze  zwischen  den  Katholiken  und  Protestanten  was  first 
published  in  Mainz  in  1834. 


240  LORD    ACTON'S  LIST  OF 

44.  Scherer — Melanges  de  Critique  Religieuse.1 

45.  Hooker — Ecclesiastical  Polity? 

46.  Weingarten — Revolutionskirchen  England's.3 

47.  Kliefoth — Acht  Biicher  von  der  Kircbe.* 

48.  Laurent — Etudes    de    VHistoire    de    rHumanite* 

1  Scherer,   Edmond   (1815-1889).     A    French   theologian? 
born  in  Paris,  died  at  Versailles.     Was  for  a  time  in  England, 
then  Professor  of  Exegesis  in  Geneva.     Was  for  many  years  a 
leader  of  the   French  Protestant  Church.     His   Melanges  de 
critique  religieuse  appeared  in  Paris  in   1860. 

2  Hooker,  Richard  (1554-1600).     Born  in  Exeter.     In  1584 
was  Rector  of  Drayton-Beauchamp,  near  Tring,  and  the  follow- 
ing year  became  Master  of  the  Temple.     In  1591  became  Vicar 
of  Boscombe  and  sub-Dean  of  Salisbury.     His  Laws  of  Ecclesias- 
tical Polity  was  published  in  1594.     ^n  J595  ^e  removed  to 
Bishopsbourne,  near  Canterbury,  where  he  died. 

3  Weingarten,  Hermann  (1834-1892).     Protestant    ecclesi- 
astical historian,  born  in  Berlin,  where  in   1868  he  became  a 
professor,  later  held  chairs  successively  at  Marberg  and  Breslau. 
His  book  Die  Revolutionskirchen  Englands  appeared  in  1868. 

4  Kliefoth,  Theodor    Friedrich  (1810-1895).      A  Lutheran 
theologian ;   born  at   Kirchow  in  Mecklenburg,  and  died  at 
Schwerin,  where  he  was  for  a  time  instructor  to  the  Grand 
Duke    of    Mecklenburg- Schwerin,    and    held    various    offices 
in  connexion  with   that  state.     He  wrote   many  theological 
works.     His   Acht  Biicher  von   der   Kirche  was   published   at 
Schwerin  in  I  volume  in  1854. 

6  Laurent,  Francois  (1810-1887).  Born  i°  Luxemburg  and 
died  in  Gent,  where  he  long  held  a  professorship.  His  principal 
work,  Etudes  sur  I'histoire  de  Fhumanite,  Histoire  du  droit  des  gens 
was  published  in  Brussels  in  18  volumes  between  1860  and  1870. 


THE    HUNDRED    BEST   BOOKS    241 

49.  Ferrari — Revolutions  de  ritalie.1 

50.  Lange — Geschichte  des  Materialismus? 

51.  Guicciardini — Ricordi  Politici? 

52.  Duperron — Ambassades* 

1  Ferrari,  Guiseppe  (1812-1876)  was  born  in  Milan,  and  died 
in  Rome.     Achieved  fame  as  a  philosophical  historian.     Held  a 
chair  at  Turin  and  afterwards  at  Milan.     As  member  of  the 
Parliament  of  Piedmont  he  was  an  opponent  of  Cavour's  policy 
of  a  United  Italy.     His  principal  book  is  entitled  Histoire  des 
revolutions  de  I'ltalie,   ou    Guelfes    et   Gibelins,  published  in 
Paris  in  four  volumes  between  1856  and  1858. 

2  Lange,    Friedrich   Albert   (1828-1875).     Philosopher   and 
economic  writer,  born  at  Wald  bei  Solingen,  died  at  Marburg. 
Held  a  professorial  chair  at  Zurich  and  later  at  Marburg.     His 
most  famous  book,  the  Geschichte  des  Materialismus  und  Kritik 
seiner  Bedentung  in  der  Gegenwart,  first  appeared  in  1866.    It  was 
published  in  England  in  1878-81  by  Trubner  in  three  volumes. 

3  Guicciardini,  Francesco  (1483-1540),  the  Italian  historian 
and  statesman,  was  born  at  Florence.     Undertook  in  1512  an 
embassy  from  Florence  to  the  Court  of  Ferdinand  the  Catholic, 
and  learned  diplomacy  in  Spain.     In  1515  he  entered  the  service 
of  Pope  Leo  X.     His  principal  book  is  his  History  of  Italy. 
The  Istoria  d' Italia  appeared  in  Florence  in  ten  volumes  between 
1561   and    1564.    His   Recordi   Politici  consists   of   some  400 
aphorisms  on  political  and  social  topics  and  has  been  described 
by  an  Italian   critic  as  "  Italian   corruption   codified  and  ele- 
vated to  a  rule  of  life." 

4  Duperron,  Jacques  Davy  (1556-1618),  a  Cardinal  of  the 
Church,  born  at  Saint  L6.     He  was  a  Court  preacher  under 
Henry  III  of  France  and  denounced  Elizabeth  of  England  in 
a  funeral  sermon  on  Mary  Stuart.     It  is  told  of  him  that  he 


242         LORD    ACTON'S  LIST   OF 

53.  Richelieu — Testament  Politique.1 

54.  Harrington's  Writings.2 

55.  Mignet — Negotiations  de  la  Succession  d'Espagne.3 

once  demonstrated  before  the  king  the  existence  of  God,  and 
being  complimented  upon  his  irrefutable  arguments,  replied 
that  he  was  prepared  to  bring  equally  good  arguments  to  prove 
that  God  did  not  exist.  He  became  Bishop  of  Evreux  in 
1591. 

1  Richelieu,    Cardinal — (Armand-Jean  Du  Plessis) — (1585- 
1642).     The  famous  minister  of  Louis  XIII ;   born  in  Paris, 
of  a  noble  family  of  Poitou.     Was  made  Bishop  of  Lucon  by 
Henry  IV  at  the  age  of  twenty- two.     Became  Almoner  to 
Marie  de  Medici,  the  Regent  of  France.    Was  elected  a  Cardinal 
in  1622.     He  wrote  many  books,  including  theological  works, 
tragedies,   and   his   own  Memoirs.     The   authenticity   of   his 
Testament  •politique  was  disputed  by  Voltaire. 

2  Harrington,     James    (1611-1677)    was    born  at  Upton, 
Northamptonshire ;  was  educated  at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge. 
He  travelled  on  the  Continent,  but  was  back  in  England  at  the 
time  of  the  Civil  War,  in  which,  however,  he  took  no  part. 
He  published  his  Oceana  in  1656.     He  is  buried  in  St.  Margaret's 
Church,  Westminster,  next  to  the  tomb  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh. 
His  Writings  in  an  edition  issued  in  1737  by  Millar  contained 
twenty  separate  treatises  in  addition  to  Oceana,  but  concerned 
with  that  book. 

3  Mignet,  Francois  Auguste  Marie  (1796-1 884).  The  historian ; 
was  born  at  Aix  and  died  in  Paris.  Published  his  History  of  the 
French  Revolution  in  1 824.  His  Negociations  relatives  a  la  succession 
d'Espagne  appeared  in  4  volumes  between  1836  and  1842.  He 
also  wrote  a  Life  of  Franklin,  a  History  of  Mary  Stuart,  and 
many  other  works, 


THE    HUNDRED    BEST   BOOKS     243 

56.  Rousseau — Considerations  sur  la  Pologne.1 

57.  Foncin — Ministere  de  Turgot.2 

58.  Burke's  Correspondence.3 

59.  Las  Cases — Memorial  de  Ste.  Helene.* 

1  Rousseau,  Jean  Jacques  (1712-1778),  the  famous  writer, 
was  born  in  Geneva  and  died  at  Ermenonville.     Much  of  his 
life  story  has  been  told  in  his  incomparable  Confessions.      In 
1759  he  published  Nouvelle  Helo'ise ;    in  1762,  UEmile  ou  de 
r  Education.     His  Considerations  sur  la  Pologne  was  written  by 
Rousseau  in  1769  in  response  to    an   application  to  apply  his 
own  theories  to  a  scheme  for  the  renovation  of  the  government 
of  Poland,  in  which  land  anarchy  was  then  at  its  height.    Mr. 
John  Morley  (Rousseau,  Vol.  II)  dismisses   the   pamphlet  with 
a  contemptuous  line. 

2  Foncin,  Pierre  (1841-    still  living).     A  French  Professor  of 
History  ;  born  at  Limoges,  and  has  long  held  important  official 
positions  in  connexion  with  education.     He  has  written  many 
books,  including  an  Atlas  Historique.     His  Essai  sur  le  ministere 
Turgot  appeared  in  1876,  and  obtained  a  prize  from  the  French 
Academy. 

3  Burke,  Edmund  (1729-1797),  the  famous  statesman,  was 
born  in  Dublin  and  died  at  Beaconsfield,  Bucks,  where  he  was 
buried.     His  Vindication  of  Natural  Society  appeared   in  1756. 
Burke     entered    Parliament   for   Wendover  in   1765,   sat  for 
Bristol,  1774-80,  and  Malton,  1780-94.  His  Collected  Works  first 
appeared  in  1792-1827  in  8  volumes,  the  first  three  of  which 
were  issued  in  his  lifetime  ;  his  Collected  Works  and  Correspond- 
ence was  published  in  8  volumes  in  1852,  but  the  Correspondence 
had  appeared  separately  in  4  volumes  in  1844. 

4  Las     Cases,    Emmanuel    Augustine    Dieudonne    Marir 
Joseph  (1766-1842).    Educated  at  the  Military  School  in  Paris 


244         LORD   ACTON'S   LIST  OF 

60.  Holtzendorff — Systematische  Rechtsenzyklopddie.1 

61.  Jhering — Geist  des  Romischen  Rechts.2 

62.  Geib—Strafrecht.* 

but  entered  the  French  navy ;  emigrated  at  the  Revolution  ; 
fought  at  Quiberon  ;  taught  French  in  London  ;  published 
in  1802  his  Atlas  bistorique  et  geograpbique  under  the  pseu- 
donym of  "  Le  Sage."  On  his  return  to  France  he  came  under 
the  notice  of  Napoleon,  who  made  him  a  Count  of  the  Empire 
and  sent  him  upon  several  important  missions.  During  the 
Emperor's  exile  in  Elba  he  again  went  to  England.  He  returned 
during  the  Hundred  Days  and  accompanied  Napoleon  to  St. 
Helena.  Here  he  recorded  day  by  day  the  conversations  of 
the  great  eiile.  At  the  end  of  eighteen  months  he  was  exiled 
by  Sir  Hudson  Lowe  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  He  returned 
to  France  after  the  death  of  Napoleon  and  became  a  Deputy 
under  Louis  Philippe.  His  Memorial  de  Sainte-Helene, 
published  in  1823-1824,  secured  a  great  success. 

1  Holtzendorff,  Franz  von  (1829-1889)^35  Professor  of  Juris- 
prudence first  at  Berlin  and  afterwards  at  Munich,  where  he 
died.  He  wrote  many  books  concerned  with  crime  and  its 
punishment,  with  the  prison  systems  of  the  world,  etc.  His 
Enzyklopadie  der  Recbtswissenscbaft  in  systematiscber  und  alpha- 
betise her  Bearbeitung  was  first  published  at  Leipzig  in  1870 
and  1871. 

8  Jhering,  Rudolph  von  (1818-1892),  was  for  a  time  pro- 
fessor at  Basle,  Rostock,  Kiel  and  Vienna.  His  Geist  des 
romischen  Rechts  auf  den  verscbiedenen  Stufen  seiner  Enttvicke- 
lung  appeared  in  Leipzig  between  1852  and  1865,  and  is  counted 
a  classic  in  jurisprudence. 

8  Geib,  Karl  Gustav  (1808-1864).  An  eminent  criminologist. 
Wa$  a  Professor  of  Zurich  and  afterwards  of  Tubingen,  where 


THE   HUNDRED    BEST   BOOKS     245 

63.  Maine — Ancient  Law.1 

64.  Gierke — Genossenschaftsrecbt.2 

65.  Stahl — Philosophie  des  Recbts? 

he  died.  Wrote  many  books,  of  which  the  most  important 
was  his  Gescbicbte  des  romiscben  Kriminalprozesses  bis  zum 
Tode  Justinians  in  1842.  His  Lebrbuch  des  deutschen  Strafrechts 
appeared  in  1861  and  1862,  but  was  never  completed. 

1  Maine,  Sir  Henry  James  Sumner  (1822-1888).  Jurist;  born 
in  Kelso,  Scotland  ;  educated  at  Christ's  Hospital,  London,  and 
at  Pembroke  College,  Cambridge ;  was  Regius  Professor  of 
Civil  Law  at  Cambridge,  1847-54.  In  1862  he  became  a 
legal  member  of  Council  in  India  and  held  the  office  for  seven 
years.  In  1871  he  became  a  K. C.S.I,  and  had  a  seat  on  the 
Indian  Council.  In  1877  he  was  elected  Master  of  Trinity 
Hall,  Cambridge,  and  in  1887  became  Whewell  Professor  of 
International  Law  at  Cambridge.  He  died  at  Cannes.  His 
principal  work  is  his  Ancient  Law  :  its  Connexion  with  the  Early 
History  of  Society  and  its  Relation  to  Modern  Ideas,  first  published 
in  1861. 

a  Gierke,  Otto  Friedrich  (1841-  still  living),  was  born 
in  Stettin;  was  Professor  of  Law  in  Breslau,  Heidelberg  and 
Berlin  successively.  Served  in  the  Franco-German  War  of 
1870.  His  principal  work,  Das  deutsche  Genossenschaftsrecht, 
appeared  in  3  volumes  in  Berlin,  the  first  in  1868,  the 
third  in  1881. 

3  Stahl,  Friedrich  Julius  (1802-1861),  was  born  in  Munich 
of  Jewish  parents,  died  in  Briickenau.  Held  chairs  of  law  and 
jurisprudence  in  Berlin  and  other  cities,  and  wrote  many 
books.  His  Die  Philosophie  des  Rechts  und  geschichtlicher 
Ansicht  appeared  at  Heidelberg  in  2  volumes  in  1830  and 
1837- 


246         LORD    ACTON'S   LIST  OF 

66.  Gentz — Briefwechsel  mit  Adam  Muller.1 

67.  Vollgraff — Polignosie? 

68.  Frantz — Kritik  oiler  Parteien? 

69.  De  Maistre — Considerations  sur  la  France.* 

1  Gentz,  Friedrich  von  (1764-1832).  A  distinguished 
publicist  and  statesman  ;  born  in  Breslau,  died  at  Weinhaus, 
near  Vienna ;  studed  Jurisprudence  in  Konigsberg.  One  of 
his  earliest  literary  efforts  was  a  translation  of  Burke's  Reflections 
upon  the  French  Revolution.  Played  a  very  considerable  part 
in  the  combination  of  the  powers  of  Europe  against  Napoleon 
in  1809-15.  He  was  the  author  of  many  books.  His  Briefe- 
wechsel  mit  Adam  Muller  was  published  in  Stuttgart  in  1857 — 
long  after  his  death. 

z  Vollgraff,  Karl  Friedrich  (1794-1863),  was  for  a  time 
Professor  of  Jurisprudence  at  Marburg,  where  he  died.  His 
two  most  important  books  were  :  (i)  Der  Systeme  der  praktischen 
Politik  im  Abendlande  ;  (2)  Erster  Fersuch  einer  Begriindung  der 
allgemeinen  Ethnologie  durch  die  Anthropologie  und  der  Staats 
und  Rechts  Philosophic  durch  die  Ethnologie  oder  Nationalitdt 
der  Folker,  published  in  4  volumes  in  1851  to  1855.  It  is  in 
this  last  volume  that  a  section  is  devoted  to  Polignosie. 

3  Frantz,  Konstantin  (1817-1891).  Distinguished  publicist ; 
born  at  Halberstadt  and  died  at  Blasewitz,  near  Dresden,  where 
he  made  his  home  for  many  years.  Was  for  a  time  German 
Consul  in  Spain.  His  great  doctrine  laid  down  in  his  Die 
Weltpolitik,  1883,  was  the  union  of  Central  Europe  against 
the  growing  power  of  Russia  and  the  United  States  of  America. 
His  Kritik  aller  Parteien  was  published  in  Berlin  in  1862. 

*  Maistre,  Joseph  Marie  Comte  de  (1753-1821).  A  distin- 
guished French  publicist;  born  at  Chambery;  studied  at  the 
University  of  Turin.  Lived  for  some  years  at  Lausanne,  where 


THE   HUNDRED    BEST   BOOKS      247 

70.  Donoso  Cortes — Ecrits  Politiques.1 

71.  Perin — De  la  Richesse  dans  les  Societes  Chretiennes? 

72.  Le  Play — La  Reform*  Sociale.3 

73.  Riehl — Die  Burgerliche  Sociale.* 

he  published  in  1796  his  Considerations  sur  la  Revolution  fran- 
(aise. 

1  Donoso   Cortes,  Jean   Francois   (1809-1853).     A   famous 
Spanish  publicist ;  born  in  Estremadura  ;  played  a  considerable 
part    in    Spanish    affairs    under    Marie-Christine    and    Queen 
Isabella.     Was  for  a  time  Spanish  Ambassador  to  Berlin,  and 
later  to  France,  where  he  died  in  Paris.     He  wrote  much  upon 
such  questions  as  the  Catholic  Church  and  Socialism. 

2  Perin,     Henri     Charles     Xavier     (1815-    ),     a     Belgium 
economist,  born  at  Mons  ;   became  an  advocate  at  Brussels  and 
also  Professor  of  Political  Economy  in  that  city.     His  book  De 
la  Richesse  dans  les  Societes  Chretiennes  appeared  in  Paris   in 
2  volumes  in  1861. 

3  Le  Play,  Pierre   Guillaume  Frederic  (1806-1882).     Born 
at  Honfleur.     He  directed  the  organization  of  the  Paris  Inter- 
national Exhibitions  of  1855  and  1867.     He  wrote  many  books. 
His  La  reforme  sociale  en  France  deduite  de  7 observation  comparee 
des  peuples  Europeens  was  published  in  two  volumes  in  1864. 

4  Riehl,  Wilhelm    Heinrich    (1823-1897).      A  well-known 
author;   born   at   Biebrich-am-Rhein,  died  in   Munich.      He 
was  associated  with  several  German  newspapers,  and  edited 
from  1848  to  1851  the  Nassauische  Allgemeine  Zeitung,  from 
1851  to  1853  the  Augsburger  Allgemeine  Zeitung,  and  afterwards 
became  a  Professor  of  Literature  at  Munich.   In  1885  he  became 
the  director  of  the  Bavarian  National  Museum.     He  wrote 
many  books,  the  one  referred  to  by  Lord  Acton  having  been 
published  in  1851  under  the  title  of  Die  bilrgerlicbe  Gesellschaft. 


248          LORD   ACTON'S  LIST  OF 

74.  Sismondi — Etudes  sur   les    Constitutions   des   Peuples 
Libres.1 

75.  Rossi — Cours  du  Droit  Constitutionnel? 

76.  Barante — Vie  de  Royer  Collard? 


1  Sismondi,  Jean  Charles  Leonard  Sismonde  de  (1773-1842), 
the  distinguished  historian  of  the    Italian  republics,  was  born 
at    Geneva   of   an    Italian   family   originally   from   Pisa.     He 
resided  for  a  time  in  England.     His  famous  book  the  Histoire 
des  Republiques    Italiennes  de  Moyen-Age  appeared    between 
1807  and  1818  in  16  volumes.     His  Etudes  sur  les  Constitutions 
des  Peuples  Libres,  was  one  of  many  other  books 

2  Rossi,  Pellegrino  Luigi  Odoardo  (1787-1848).     An  Italian 
publicist ;    born   at    Carrara.     Keenly  sympathized    with    the 
French  Revolution  and  served  under  Murat  in  the  Hundred 
Days,  after  which  he  fled  to  Geneva.     In  later  years  he  became 
a  nationalized  Frenchman,  occupied  a  Chair  of  Constitutional 
Law,  and  finally  became  a  peer.      As  Comte  Rossi  he  went  on 
a  special  embassy  to  Rome.     He  was  assassinated  in  that  city 
during  the  troubles  of  1848.    His  Traite  du  Droit  Constitutional 
appeared  in  2  volumes. 

3  Barante,  Aimable  Guillaume  Prosper   Brugiere,  baron  de 
(1782-1868),  historian  and  politician,  was  born  at  Riom.     He 
was  made  a  Counciller  of  State  by  Louis  XVIII  in  1815,  and 
a  peer  of  France  in  1819.     He  was  elected  a  member  of  the 
French  Academy  in  1828.     Under  Louis  Philippe  he  became 
Ambassador  first  at  Turin  and  afterwards  at  St.  Petersburg. 
After  the    revolution  of  1848  he  devoted  himself  entirely  to 
literature.     He  wrote  many  historical  and  literary  studies,  and 
translated  the  works  of  Schiller  into  French.     His  Vie  politique 
de  Royer-Collard  has  several  times  been  reprinted. 


THE   HUNDRED    BEST   BOOKS    249 

77.  Duvergier  de  Hauranne — Histoire  du  Gouvernement 
Parlementaire.1 

78.  Madison — Debates  of  the  Congress  of  Confederation.2 

79.  Hamilton — The  Federalist? 

80.  Calhoun — Essay  on  Government.11 

1  Duvergier    de    Hauranne,    Prosper    (1798-1881),    was    a 
distinguished    French    publicist,    born    at    Rouen.     He    was 
parliamentary  deputy  for  Sancerre  in  1831  and  took  part  in 
most  of  the  political  struggles  of  the  following  twenty  years. 
He  was  exiled  from  France  at  the  time  of  the  Coup  d'fitat,  but 
returned  during  the  reign  of  Napoleon  III.     Henceforth  he 
devoted  himself  exclusively  to  historical  studies.     His  Histoire 
du  gouvernement  -parlementaire  en  France,  published  in   1870, 
secured  his  election  to  the  French  Academy. 

2  Madison,  James  (1751-1836).      The  fourth  President  of 
the  United  States  ;  born  at  Port  Conway,   Virginia.     Acted 
with  Jay  and  Hamilton  in  the  Convention  which  framed  the 
Constitution  and  wrote  with  them  The  Federalist.     He  had 
two   terms  of  office — between    1809  and   1817 — as   President. 
He  died  at  Montpelier,  Virginia.     His  Debates  of  the  Congress 
of  Confederation  was   published   in    Elliot's  "  Debates  on    the 
State  Conventions,"  4  vols.,  Philadelphia,  1861. 

3  Hamilton,   Alexander  (1757-1804).      A  great  American 
statesman,  who  served  in    Washington's  army,  and  after  the 
war  became  eminent  as  a  lawyer  in  New  York.   He  wrote  fifty-one 
out  of  the  eighty-five  essays  of  The  Federalist.     He  was  appointed 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  the  United  States  in  1789.     He 
was  mortally  wounded  in  a  duel  by  Aaron  Burr  in  1804.     His 
influence  upon  the  American  Constitution  gives  him  a  great 
place  in  the  annals  of  the  Republic. 

4  Calhoun,    John    Campbell    (1782-1850).     An    American 


250        LORD    ACTON'S   LIST   OF 

81.  Dumont — Sophismes  Anarchiques.^ 

82.  Quinet — La  Revolution  Franfaise? 

83.  Stein — Sozialismus  in  Frankreich.3 

statesman ;  born  in  Abbeville  County,  South  Carolina  and 
studied  at  Yale.  As  a  Member  of  Congress  he  supported  the 
war  with  Great  Britain  in  1812-15.  ^e  was  twice  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States.  He  died  at  Washington. 
A  Disquisition  on  Government  and  a  Discourse  on  the  Con- 
titution  and  Government  of  the  United  States  were  written  in 
the  last  months  of  his  life.  His  Collected  Works  appeared  in 

I853-4- 

1  Dumont,  Pierre   Etienne   Louis   (1759-1829).      A  great 
publicist ;  born  in  Geneva,  and  principally  known  in  England 
by  his  association  with  Bentham,  to  whom  he  acted  as  an  editor 
and  interpreter.     Lived   much  in  Paris,  St.  Petersburg,  and, 
above  all,  in  London,  where  he  knew  Fox,  Sheridan,  and  other 
famous  men,  and  taught  the  children  of  Lord  Shelburne. 
Dumont's  Sophismes  Anarchiques  appears  in  Bentham's  Collected 
Works  as  Anarchical  Fallacies. 

2  Quinet,  Edgar  (1803-1875).     French  historian  and  philo- 
sopher ;   born  at    Borg  and  died  in   Paris.     His  epic  poem  of 
Ahasuerus  was  placed  upon  the  Index.     Of  his  many  books 
his  La  Revolution  Franc,aise  is  the  best  known.     It  was  written 
in  Switzerland,  where  he  was  an  exile  during  the  reign  of 
Napoleon  III.    He  returned  to  France  in  1870. 

3  Stein,   Lorenz  von   (1815-1890).     Writer  on  economics, 
studied  in  Kiel  and  in  Jena.     In  1855  he  became  Professor  of 
International  Law  in  Vienna.     He  wrote  books  on  statecraft 
and  international    law.    His   work   entitled    Der    Sozialismus 
und  Kommunismus  des  heutigen  Frankreich  appeared  in  Leipzig 
in  1843. 


84-  Lassalle — System    der   Erworbenen    Rechte.1 

85.  Thonissen — Le  Socialisms  depuis  VAntiquite? 

86.  Considerant — Destinee  Sociale.3 

87.  Roscher — Nationalokonomik* 
89.  Mill— System  of  Logic.5 

1  Lassalle,  Ferdinand  (1825-1864),  the  famous  social  demo- 
crat, was  of  Jewish  birth  ;  born  at   Breslau.     He  took  part 
in  the  revolution  of  1848  and  received  six  months'   imprison- 
ment.    He  was  wounded  in  a  duel  at  Geneva  over  a  love  affair 
and  died  two  days  later.     His    System   der  Erworbenen   Rechte 
appeared  in  1861. 

2  Thonissen,    Jean   Joseph    (1817-1891).      A    distinguished 
jurist ;  born  in  Belgium.     He  studied  at  Liege  and  in  Paris ; 
became  a  Professor  of  the   Catholic  University  of  Louvain  ; 
afterwards  became  a  Minister  of  State.     Of  his  many  works  his 
Socialisms  depuis  Vantiquite  jusqu'd    la    constitution    franfaise 
de  1852  is  best  known. 

3  Considerant,   Victor   (1808-1894).       Born   at  Salms,  and, 
after  the  Revolution  of  1848,  entered  the  Chamber  of  Deputies. 
He  crossed  to  America  to  found  a  colony  in  Texas,  but  ruined 
himself  by  the  experiment.     He  returned  to  France  in  1869. 
He  was  the  author  of  many  socialistic  treatises. 

4  Roscher,  Wilhelm    (1817-1894),  economist,  was    born  in 
Hanover.     Held  a  chair  first  in  Gottingen  and  afterwards  in 
Leipzig,  where  he  died.     His  Geschicbte  der  Nationalokonomik 
in  Deutschland  appeared  in  Munich  in  1874. 

6  Mill,  John  Stuart  (1806-1873),  the  famous  publicist  and 
author,  was  born  in  London,  and  educated  by  his  father,  James 
Mill  (1773-1836).  He  served  in  the  India  Office,  1823-58  ;  he 
was  M.P.  for  Westminster,  1865-68.  His  works  include 
the  Principles  of  Political  Economy,  1848 ;  the  Essay  on  Liberty, 
1859,  and  the  System  of  Logic,  which  first  appeared  in  1843. 


252        LORD    ACTON'S   LIST   OF 

90.  Coleridge — Aids  to  Reflection.1 

91.  Radowitz — Fragmented 

92.  Gioberti — Pensieri? 


1  Coleridge,  Samuel    Taylor  (1772-1834),  poet  and  critic, 
was  born  at  Ottery  St.  Mary,  Devonshire;  educated  at  Christ's 
Hospital,  London,  and  at  Jesus  College,  Cambridge.     In  the 
volume  of  Lyrical  Ballads  by  Wordsworth  of  1798    Coleridge 
contributed  the  Ancient  Mariner,  and  he  was  to  make  his  greatest 
reputation  by  this  and  other  poems.     His   best  prose  work 
was  his  Biogra-phia  Liter  aria  (1817).     His  Aids  to  Reflection 
was  first  published  in  1825. 

2  Radowitz,    Joseph    Maria    von  (1797-1853).      A  Prussian 
general  and  statesman;  born  in  Blankenberg  and  died  in  Berlin. 
Fought  in  the  Napoleonic  wars  and  was  wounded  at  the  battle 
of  Leipzig.  Afterwards  served  as  Ambassador  to  various  German 
Courts.      He   wrote   several    treatises    bearing    upon    current 
affairs,  and  his  Fragmente  form  Vols.  IV  and  V  of  his  Collected 
Works  in  5  volumes,  which  were    issued    in  Berlin  in  1852- 

53- 

3  Gioberti,    Vincent    (1801-1852).     An    Italian   statesman 
and  philosopher  ;  born  in  Turin,  where  he  afterwards  became 
Professor  of  Theology.     Was  for  a  time  Court  Chaplain,  but 
his  liberal  views  led  to  exile,  and  he  retired  first  to  Paris,  then 
to   Brussels.     Afterwards    became   famous   as   a    neo-Catholic 
with  his  attempt  to  combine  faith  with  science  and  art,  and 
urged  the  independence  and  the  unity  of  Italy.     His  Jesuite 
moderne,  published  in  1847,  created  a  sensation.     After  some 
years  of  home  politics  he  was  appointed  by  King  Victor  Em- 
manuel as  Ambassador  to  Paris.     It  is  noteworthy  in  the  light 
of  Lord  Acton's  recommendation  of  his  Pensieri  that  his  works 
have  been  placed  on  the  Index. 


THE   HUNDRED    BEST   BOOKS    253 

93.  Humboldt — Kosmos.1 

94.  De  Candolle — Histoire  des  Sciences  et  des  Savants? 

95.  Darwin — Origin  of  Species? 

96.  Littr£ — Fragments  de  Philosophic.* 

97.  Cournot — Enchainements   des   I  dees   fondamentales? 

1  Humboldt,     Friedrich    Heinrich    Alexander    Baron   von 
(1769-1859),  the  great  naturalist,  was  born  and  died  in  Berlin, 
and  studied  at  Frankfort-on-the-Oder,  Berlin  and   Gottingen  ; 
he  spent  five  years  (1799-1804)  in  exploring  South  America, 
and  in    1829    travelled    through    Central   Asia.    His  Kosmos 
appeared  between  1845  and  1858  in  4  volumes. 

2  De  Candolle,  Alphonse  de  (1806-1893).     The  son  of  the 
celebrated  botanist,   Augustin   Pyramus  de  Candolle,  and  was 
himself  a  professor  of  that  science  at  Geneva.     His  Histoire 
des  sciences  et  des  savants  depuis  deux  siecles  appeared  in  1873. 

3  Darwin,  Charles  Robert  (1809-1882),  the  great   naturalist 
and  discoverer  of  natural  selection,  was  born  at  Shrewsbury, 
where  he  was  educated  at  the  Grammar  School,  at  Edinburgh 
University,   and  at   Christ's   College,   Cambridge.     His   most 
famous  book,  The  Origin  of  Species  by  means  of  Natural  Selection, 
was  first  published  in  1859. 

4  Littre,  Maximilien    Paul  Emile  (1801-1884),  the  famous 
lexicographer   whose    Dictionnaire  de  la  langue  franfaise   gave 
him  a  world-wide  reputation.     He  was   born  in  Paris.     He 
associated  himself  with  Auguste  Comte  and  the  Positive  Philo- 
sophy, and  contributed  many  volumes  in  support  of  Comte's 
standpoint. 

5  Cournot,    Antoine    Augustin     (1801-1877).        Born     at 
Gray    in    Savoy ;    wrote    many    mathematical    treatises.     His 
Traite  de  fenchainement  des  idees  fondamentales  dans  les  sciences 
et  dans  Phistoire  was  published  in  2  volumes. 


254        LORD    ACTON'S   LIST   OF 

98.  Monatschriften   der   zvissenschaftlicben    Fereine1. 

This  list,  written  in  1883  in  Miss  Gladstone's 
(Mrs.  Drew's)  Diary,  must  always  have  an  interest 
in  the  history  of  the  human  mind. 

But  my  readers  will,  I  imagine,  for  the  most 
part,  agree  with  me  that  there  are  others  besides 
untutored  savages  and  illiterate  peasant  women 
to  whom  such  a  list  is  entirely  impracticable.  It 
indicates  the  enormous  preference  which  on  the 
whole  Lord  Acton  gave  to  the  Literature  of 
Knowledge  over  the  Literature  of  Power,  to  use 
De  Quincey's  famous  distinction.  With  the 
exception  of  Dante's  Divine  Comedy  there  is 
practically  not  a  single  book  that  has  any  title 
whatever  to  a  place  in  the  Literature  of  Power, 
a  literature  which  many  of  us  think  the  only 
thing  in  the  world  of  books  worth  consideration. 
Great  philosophy  is  here,  and  high  thought. 

1  This  was  a  most  comprehensive  addition,  and  fully  makes 
up  for  the  abrupt  termination  of  the  list  of  the  hundred  best 
books  with  two  omissions.  The  omission  of  the  book  num- 
bered 88  will  also  have  been  remarked.  There  are  probably  a 
hundred  "  Monatschriften  der  Wissenschaftlichen  Vereine  "  or 
magazines  of  scientific  societies  issued  in  Germany.  Sperling's 
Zeitscbriften-Adrfssbuch  gives  more  than  two  columns  of  these. 


THE    HUNDRED    BEST   BOOKS    255 

Who  would  for  a  moment  wish  to  disparage  St. 
Bonaventure,  the  Seraphic  Doctor,  or  Aquinas 
the  Angelic  ?  Plato  and  Pascal,  Malebranche  and 
Fenelon,  Bossuet  and  Machiavelli  are  all  among 
the  world's  immortals.  Yet  now  and  again  we 
are  bewildered  by  rinding  the  least  important 
book  of  a  well-known  author — as  for  example 
Rousseau's  Poland  instead  of  the  Confessions 
and  Coleridge's  Aids  to  Reflection  instead  of  the 
Poems  or  the  Biographia  Literaria.  Think  of  an 
historian  whose  ideal  of  historical  work  was  so 
high  that  he  despised  all  who  worked  only  from 
printed  documents,  selecting  the  Memorial  of 
St.  Helena  of  Las  Casas  in  preference  not  only  to 
a  hundred-and-one  similar  compilations  con- 
cerning Napoleon's  exile,  but  in  preference  to 
Thucydides,  Herodotus  and  Gibbon. 

Sometimes  Lord  Acton  names  a  theologian 
who  is  absolutely  out-of-date,  at  others  a  philoso- 
pher who  is  in  the  same  case.  But  on  the  whole 
it  is  a  fascinating  list  as  an  index  to  what  a  well- 
trained  mind  thought  the  noblest  mental  equip- 
ment for  life's  work.  At  the  best,  it  is  true,  it 
would  represent  but  one  half  of  life.  But  then 
Lord  Acton  recognized  this  when  he  asked  that 


256        LORD    ACTON'S    LIST   OF 

men  should  be  "steeled  against  the  charm  of 
literary  beauty  and  talent,"  and  he  was  assuming 
in  any  case  that  all  the  books  in  aesthetic  liter- 
ature, the  best  poetry  and  the  best  history  had 
already  been  read,  as  he  undoubtedly  had  read 
them. 

"  The  charm  of  literary  beauty  and  talent  !  " 
There  is  the  whole  question.  Nothing  really 
matters  for  the  average  man,  so  far  as  books  are 
concerned,  but  this  charm,  and  I  am  criticizing 
Lord  Acton's  list  for  the  average  man.  The 
student  who  has  got  beyond  it  need  not  worry 
himself  about  classified  lists.  He  may  read  his 
Plato  and  Aristotle,  his  Pascal  and  Newman, 
his  Christian  apologists  and  German  theolo- 
gians, as  he  wills  ;  or  he  may  read  in  some  other 
quite  different  direction.  Guidance  is  impossible 
to  a  mind  at  such  a  stage  of  cultivation  as  Lord 
Acton  had  in  view. 

Only  minds  at  a  more  primitive  stage  of  cul- 
ture than  this  most  learned  and  most  accom- 
plished man  seemed  able  to  conceive  of,  could 
be  bettered  by  advice  as  to  reading.  Given, 
indeed,  contact  with  some  superior  mind,  which 
out  of  its  rich  equipment  of  culture  should  advise 


THE    HUNDRED    BEST   BOOKS    257 

as  to  the  books  that  might  be  most  profitably 
read,  I  could  imagine  advice  being  helpful.     It 
would  be  of  no  value,  it  is  true,  to  an  untutored 
savage  or  illiterate  peasant,  but  to  a  youth  fresh 
from  school-books  and  much  modern  fiction,  to 
a  young  girl  about  to  enter  upon  life  in  its  more 
serious  aspects,  it  would  be  immensely  serviceable. 
It  was  of  such  as  these  that  Mr.  Ruskin  thought 
when  he  wrote  of  "  King's  Treasures  "   in  Sesame 
and   Lilies,    and    the   same    idea    was    doubtless 
in   Sir  John  Lubbock's   mind  when  he  lectured 
on    the    "  Hundred    Best    Books."      But    Lord 
Avebury's    list  had  its  limitations,  it    seems    to 
me,  for  any  one   who  has    an    interest  in  good 
literature  and  guidance  to  the  reading  thereof. 
To  give  "  Scott  "  as  one  book  and  "  Shakspere  " 
as  another  was  I  suggest  to  shirk  much  responsi- 
bility   of   selection.     Scott    is    a    whole   library, 
Shakspere     is     yet    another.      One     may    give 
"Keats"    or  "  Shelley"  because  they  are  more 
limited  in  quantity.     Even  to  name  novels  by 
Charles    Kingsley  and    Bulwer    Lytton    in    this 
select  hundred  was   to  demonstrate  to   men  of 
this  generation  that   Lord  Avebury  being  of  an 
earlier   one  had   a    bias    in  favour  of    the   books 


258         LORD    ACTON'S    LIST   OF 

that  we  are  all  outgrowing.  To  include  Mill's 
Logic  is  to  ignore  the  Time  Spirit  acting  on 
philosophy ;  to  include  Tennyson's  Idylls  its 
action  on  poetry.  Mill  and  Tennyson  will  al- 
ways live  in  literature  but  not  I  think  by  these 
books. 

But  the  fact  is  that  there  is  no  possibility  of 
naming  the  hundred  best  books.     No  one  could 
quarrel  with   Lord   Avebury  if   he  had   named 
these  as  his  hundred  own  favourites  among  the 
books  of  the  world.     Still,  it  might  have  been  his 
hundred  ;    it  could  not  possibly  have  been  any 
one  else's  hundred  because  every  man  of  education 
must  make  his  own  choice.     No  !    the  naming 
of  the  hundred  best  books  for  any  large,  general 
audience  is  quite  impossible.     All  that  is  possible 
in   such   a    connexion    is    to    state    emphatically 
that  there  are  very  few  books  that  are  equally 
suitable  to  every  kind  of  intellect.     Temperament 
as  well  as  intellectual  endowment  make  for  so 
much  in  reading.     Take,  for  example,  the  Imita- 
tion  of   Christ.     George   Eliot,   although   not   a 
Christian,  found   it   soul-satisfying.     Thackeray, 
as  I  think  a  more  robust  intellect,  found  it  well 
nigh  as  mischievous  as  did   Eugene   Sue,  whose 


THE   HUNDRED    BEST    BOOKS    259 

anathematizations  in  his  novel  The  Wandering 
Jew  are  remembered  by  all.  Other  books 
that  have  been  the  outcome  of  piety  of 
mind  leave  less  room  for  difference  of  opinion. 
Surely  Dante's  Divine  Comedy,  and  Bunyan's 
Pilgrim's  Progress,  make  an  universal  appeal. 
That  universal  appeal  is  the  point  at  which  alone 
guidance  is  possible.  There  are  great  books  that 
can  be  read  only  by  the  few,  but  surely  the  very 
greatest  appeal  alike  to  the  educated  and  the 
illiterate,  to  the  man  of  rich  intellectual  endow- 
ment and  to  the  man  to  whom  all  processes  of 
reasoning  are  incomprehensible.  Hamlet  is  a 
wonderful  test  of  this  quality.  It  "  holds  the 
boards  "  at  the  small  provincial  theatre,  it  is 
enacted  by  Mr.  Crummies  to  an  illiterate  peas- 
antry, and  it  is  performed  by^the  greatest  actor  to 
the  most  select  city  audience.  It  is  made  the 
subject  of  study  by  learned  commentators.  It 
is  world-embracing. 

Are  there  in  the  English  language,  including 
translations,  a  hundred  books  that  stand  the  test 
as  Hamlet  stands  it  ?  No  two  men  would  make 
the  same  list  of  books  that  answer  to  this  demand 
of  an  universal  appeal,  and  obviously  each  nation 


260        LORD    ACTON'S   LIST   OF 

must  make  its  own  list.  Mine  is  for  English 
boys  and  girls  just  growing  into  manhood  and 
womanhood,  or  for  those  who  have  had  no  educa- 
tional advantages  in  early  years.  I  exclude  living 
writers,  and  I  give  the  hundred  in  four  groups. 


POETRY. 

1.  The  Bible.1 

2.  The   Odyssey,   translated   by  Butcher  and   Lang.2 

3.  The  Iliad,  translated  by  Lang,  Leaf  and  Myers.3 

1  The  Bible  can  be  best  read  in  paragraph  form  from  the 
Eversley  edition,  published  by  the  Macmillans,  or  from  the 
Temple  Bible,  issued  by  J.  M.  Dent — the  latter  an  edition  for  the 
pocket.  The  translation  of  1610  is  literature  and  has  made 
literature.  The  revised  translation  of  our  own  day  has  neither 
characteristic.  Something  can  be  said  for  the  Douay  Bible  in 
this  connexion.  It  was  published  in  Douay  in  the  same  year 
as  the  Protestant  version  appeared — 1610.  Certain  words  from 
it,  such  as  "Threnes  "  for  "Lamentations  "  as  the  Threnes  of 
Jeremiah,  have  a  poetical  quality  that  deserved  survival. 

2~3  The  Iliad  may  be  read  in  a  hundred  verse  translations 
of  which  those  by  Pope  and  Cowper  are  the  best  known.  Both 
these  may  be  found  in  Bohn's  Libraries  (G.  Bell  &  Sons)  ;  but 
the  prose  translation  for  which  Mr.  Lang  and  his  friends  are 
responsible  (Macmillan)  is  for  our  generation  far  and  away  the 
best  introduction  to  Homer  for  the  non-Grecian. 


THE    HUNDRED    BEST   BOOKS    261 

4.  Aeschylus,  translated  by  George  Warr.1 

5.  Sophocles,  translated  by  J.  S.  Phillimore.2 

6.  Euripides,  translated  by  Gilbert  Murray.3 

7.  Virgil,  translated  by  Dry  den.4 

8.  Catullus,  translated  by  Theodore  Martin.6 

9.  Horace,  translated  by  Theodore  Martin.6 

i'2'3  Under  the  title  of  "  The  Athenian  Drama,"  George 
Allen  has  published  three  fine  volumes  of  the  works  of  the  Greek 
dramatists. 

4  Dryden's  translation  of  Virgil  has  been  followed  by  many 
others  both  in  prose  and  verse.    There  was  one  good  prose 
version  by  C.  Davidson  recently  issued  in  Laurie's  Classical 
Library.       An    interesting    translation    of    Virgil's    Georgia 
into  English  verse  was  recently  made  by  Lord  Burghclere  and 
published  by  John  Murray.     The  young  student,  however,  will 
do  well  to  approach  Virgil  through  Dryden.     He  will  find  the 
book  in  the  Chandos  Classics,  or  superbly  printed  in  Professor 
Saintsbury's  edition  of  Dryden's  Works,  Vol.  XIV. 

5  There  have  been  many  translations  of  Catullus.     One,  by 
Sir  Richard  Burton,  was  issued  by  Leonard  Smithers  in  1894. 
In  Bohn's  Library  there  is  a  prose  translation  by  Walter  K.  Kelly. 
Professor  Robinson  Ellis  made  a  verse  translation  that  has  been 
widely   praised.     Grant  Allen   translated   the   Attis   in   1892. 
On  the  whole,  the  English  verse  translation  by  Sir  Theodore 
Martin  made  in  1861  (Blackwood  &  Son)  is  far  and  away  the 
best  suited  for  a  first  acquaintance    with  this  the  '  tenderest 
of  Roman  Poets.' 

6  Horace  has  been  made  the  subject  of  many  translations. 
Perhaps    there    are    fifty    now   available.       John    Conington's 
edition  of  his  complete  works,  two  volumes  (Bell),  is  well  known. 
The  best  introduction  to  Horace  for  the  young  student  is  in 


262        LORD   ACTON'S    LIST   OF 

10.  Dante,  translated  by  Gary.1 

11.  Shakspere,  Hamlet.2 

12.  Chaucer,  Canterbury  Tales.3 

Sir  Theodore  Martin's  translation,  two  volumes  (Blackwood), 
and  a  volume  by  the  same  author  entitled  Horace  in  "  Ancient 
Classics  for  English  Readers  "  (Blackwood)  is  a  charming  little 
book. 

1  Dante's  Divine  Comedy  as  translated    by  Henry    Francis 
Gary  (1772-1844)  has  been   described  by  Mr.  Ruskin  as  better 
reading  than  Milton's  "  Paradise  Lost."     James  Russell  Lowell, 
with  true  patriotism,  declared  that  his  countrymen  Longfellow's 
translation  (Routledge)  was  the  best.     Something  may  be  said 
for  the  prose  translation  by  Dr.  John  Carlyle  of  the  Inferno 
(Bell)  and  for  Mr.  A.  J.  Butler's  prose  translation  of  the  whole 
of  the  Divine  Comedy  in  three    volumes  (Macmillan).     Other 
translations  which  have  had  a  great  vogue  are  by  Wright  and 
Dean  Plumptre.      The  best  books  on  Dante  are  those  by  Dr. 
Edward  Moore  (Clarendon    Press).     Gary's  translation  can  be 
obtained  in  one  volume  in  Bohn's  Library  (Bell)  or  in  the 
Chandos  Classics  (Warne). 

2  I  contend  that  while  most  of  the  poets  are  self-contained  in 
a  single  volume,  Shakspere's  plays  are  best  enjoyed  as  separate 
entities.     Certainly  each  of  them  has  a  library  attached  to  it, 
and  it  is  quite    profitable    to    read    Hamlet    in  Mr.    Horace 
Howard  Furness's  edition   (Lippincott)  with  a  multitude   of 
criticisms  of    the    play  bound    up  with  the   text    of    Hamlet. 
But  Hamlet   should  be  read  first  in  the  Temple  Shakspere 
(Dent)  or  in    the  Arden  Shakspere  (Methuen).     To  this  last 
there  is  an  admirable  introduction  by  Professor  Dowden. 

3  Chaucer's  Canterbury  Tales  should  be  read  in  Mr.  AlfredW 
Pollard's  edition,  which  forms  two  volumes  of  the  "  Eversley 


THE   HUNDRED    BEST   BOOKS   263 

13.  FitzGerald,  Omar  Khayyam.1 

14.  Goethe,  Faust? 

15.  Shelley.3 

1 6.  Byron.4 

Library  "  (Macmillan).  The  "  Tales  "  may  be  obtained  in 
cheaper  form  in  the  Chaucer  of  the  Aldine  Poets  (Bell),  of 
which  I  have  grateful  memories, having  first  read  "Chaucer "in 
these  little  volumes.  The  enthusiast  will  obtain  the  Complete 
Works  of  Chaucer  edited  for  the  Clarendon  Press  by  Professor 
W.  W.  Skeat. 

1  FitzGerald's  Omar  Khayyam  can  be  obtained  in  its  four 
versions,  each  of  which  has  its  merits,  only  from  the  Mac- 
millans,  who  publish  it  in  many  forms.     The  edition  in  the 
Golden  Treasury  Series  may  be  particularly  commended.     The 
present   writer   has    written   an   introduction   to    a    sixpenny 
edition  of  the  first  version.     It  is  published  by  William  Heine- 
mann. 

2  Goethe's  Faust  has   been  translated  in  many  forms.     Cer- 
tainly Anster's  version  (Sampson  Low)  is  the  most  vivacious. 
Anna  Swanwick,  Sir  Theodore  Martin  and  Bayard  Taylor's 
translations  have  about  equal  merit. 

3  Shelley's  Poetical  Works  should  be  read  in  the  one  volume 
issued  in  green  cloth  by  the  Macmillans,  with  an  introduction 
by  Edward  Dowden,  or  in  the  Oxford  Poets  (Henry  Froude), 
with  an  introduction  by  H.  Buxton  Forman,  but  perhaps  the 
best  edition  is  that  of  the  Clarendon  Press  with  an  introduction 
by  Thomas  Hutchinson.      Mr.  Forman's  library  edition  of 
Shelley's  Complete  Works  is  the  desire  of  all  collectors. 

4  Byron's  Poetical  Works,  edited  by  Ernest  Coleridge,  form 
seven  volumes   of   John   Murray's  edition   of   Byron's   Works 
in  thirteen  volumes.    There  is  not  a  good  one-volume  Byron. 


264         LORD    ACTON'S    LIST   OF 

17.  Wordsworth.1 

1 8.  Keats.2 

19.  Burns.3 

20.  Coleridge.4 

21.  Cowper.5 

I    particularly  commend  the   three-volume   edition    (George 

Newnes.) 
1  Wordsworth  may  be  read  in  his  entirety  in  the  sixteen 

volumes  of  Prose   and  Poetry  edited   by   William   Knight  in 

the  Eversley  Library  (Macmillan).  The  same  publisher  issues  an 
admirable  Wordsworth  in  one  volume,  edited,  with  an 
introduction  by  John  Morley.  But  the  first  approach  to 
Wordsworth's  verse  should  be  made  through  Matthew  Arnold's 
Select  Poems  in  the  Golden  Treasury  Series  (Macmillan). 

2  Keats' 's   Works  are  issued  in  one  volume  in   the  Oxford 
Poets  (Froude),  and  in  five  shilling  volumes  by  Gowans  and 
Gray  of  Glasgow.    Mr.  Buxton  Forman's  annotations  to  this 
cheap   edition   exceed   in  value   those   attached   to   his   more 
expensive   "  Library  Edition,"  which,   however,   as  with  the 
Shelley,  in  eight  volumes,  is  out  of  print. 

3  The  four  volumes  of  Burns,  with  an  introduction  by  W.  E. 
Henley,     are    pleasant    to   read.     They    are     published    by 
Jack,     of     Edinburgh.       The     best     single-volume    Burns  is 
that  in  the  Globe  Library  (Macmillan),  with  an  introduction 
by  Alexander  Smith. 

4  There  is  no  rival  to  the  one-volume  edition  of  Coleridge's 
Poems,  with  an  introduction  by  J.  Dykes  Campbell,  published 
by  Macmillan.     Mr.  Dykes  Campbell's  biography  of  Coleridge 
should  also  be  read.    The  prose  works  of  Coleridge  are  obtain- 
able in  Bohn's  Library.    The  fortunate  book  lover  has  many  in 
Pickering  editions. 

5  Conifer's  Complete   Works  are  acquired  for  a  modest  sum 


THE   HUNDRED    BEST   BOOKS    265 

22.  Crabbe.1 

23.  Tennyson.2 

24.  Browning.3 

25.  Milton.4 

of  the  second-hand  bookseller  in  Southey's  sixteen-volume 
edition.  The  two  best  one-volume  issues  of  the  Poems  are  the 
Globe  Library  Edition  with  an  introduction  by  Canon  Benham 
(Macmillan),  and  Cowper's  Complete  Poems  with  an  introduction 
by  J.  C.  Bailey  (Methuen).  The  best  of  the  letters  are  con- 
tained in  a  volume  in  the  Golden  Treasury  Series,  with  an 
introduction  by  Mrs.  Oliphant.  The  Complete  Letters  of 
Cowper,  edited  by  Thomas  Wright,  have  been  published  by 
Hodder  &  Stoughton  in  four  volumes. 

1  Crabbers   Works,  in  eight  volumes,  with  biography  by  his 
son,  may  be  obtained  very  cheaply  from  the  second-hand  book- 
seller.    With  all  the  merits  of  both  Works  and  Life  they  have 
not  been    reprinted    satisfactorily.      The  only  good    modern 
edition  of  Crabbers  Poems  is  in  three  volumes  published  by  the 
Cambridge  University  Press,  edited  by  A.  W.  Ward. 

2  The  best  one-volume  Tennyson  is  issued  by  the  Macmillans, 
who  still  hold  certain  copyrights.     The  Library  Edition  of 
Tennyson,  with  the  Biography  included  in  the  twelve  volumes, 
is  a  desirable  acquisition. 

3  Not  all  the  sixteen  volumes  of    the    Library  Edition  of 
Browning  pay  for  perusal.    The  most  convenient  form  is  that 
of  the  two-volume  edition  (Smith,  Elder  &  Co.),  with  notes  by 
Augustine  Birrell. 

4  Milton's  Poetical  Works  as  annotated  by  David    Masson 
(Macmillan)  make  the  standard  library  edition,  and  the  same 
publishers  have  given  us  the  best  one-volume  Milton  in  the 
Globe  Library,  with  an  introduction  by  Professor   Masson, 
Milton's  one  effective  biographer. 


266        LORD    ACTON'S    LIST   OF 

FICTION. 

1.  The  Arabian  Nights  Entertainment.^ 

2.  Don  Quixote,  by  Cervantes.2 

3.  Pilgrim's  Progress,  by  Bunyan.3 

4.  Robinson  Crusoe,  by  Defoe.4 

1  The  Arabian  Nights'  Entertainments  is  first  introduced  to 
us  all  as  a  children's  story-book.     Tennyson  has  placed  on  record 
his  own  early  memories : — 

"  In  sooth  it  was  a  goodly  time, 
For  it  was  in  the  golden  prime 
Of  good  Haroun  Alraschid." 

But  the  collector  of  the  hundred  best  books  will  do  well  to  read 
the  Arabian  Nights  in  the  translation  by  Edward  William 
Lane,  edited  by  Stanley  Lane  Poole,  in  4  volumes,  for  George 
Bell  &  Sons. 

2  The    most    satisfactory    translation   of    Cervantes's  great 
romance  is  that  made  by  John  Ormesby,  revised  and  edited  by 
James   Fitzmaurice-Kelly,  published   by  Gowans  &  Gray  in 
4  shilling  volumes. 

3  The  Pilgrim's  Progress  is  presented  in  a  hundred  forms. 
The  present  writer  first  read  it  in  a  penny  edition.     It  should 
be  possessed  by  the  book-lover  in  a  volume  of  the  Cambridge 
English  Classics,  in  which  Grace  Abounding  and  The  Pilgrim's 
Progress   are  given  together,  edited   by  Dr.  John  Brown,  and 
published  by  the  Cambridge  University  Press. 

4  Schoolboys,  notwithstanding  Macaulay,  usually  know  but 
few  good  books,  but  every  schoolboy  knows  Defoe's  Robinson 
Crusoe  in  one  form  or  another.     The  maker  of  a  library  will 
prefer  it  as  a  Volume  of  Defoe's  Works  (J.  M.  Dent),  or  as 


THE   HUNDRED    BEST   BOOKS    267 

5.  Gulliver's  Travels^  by  Swift.1 

6.  Claris  so.,  by  Richardson.2 

7.  Tom  Jones,  by  Fielding.3 

8.  Rasselas,  by  Johnson.4 


Volume  VII  of  Defoe's  Novels  and  Miscellaneous  Works  (Bell 
&  Sons).  There  are  many  good  shilling  editions  of  the  book 
by  itself,  but  Defoe  should  be  read  in  many  of  his  works  and 
particularly  in  Moll  Flanders. 

1  As  with  Robinson  Crusoe,  Gulliver's  Travels  can  be  obtained 
in  many  cheap  forms,  but  it  is  well  that  it  should  be  obtained 
as  Volume  VIII  of  Swift's  Prose  Works,  published  in  Bohn's 
Libraries  by  George  Bell  &  Sons.     There  has  not  been  a  really 
good  edition  of  Swift's  works  since  Scott's  monumental  book. 

2  Clarissa  should  be  read  in  nine  of  the  twenty  volumes  of 
Richardson's  Novels,  published  by  Chapman  &  Hall — a  very 
dainty  well-printed  book.     "  I  love  these  large,  still  books," 
said  Lord  Tennyson. 

3  The  greatest  of  all   novels,    Tom  Jones,  is   obtainable   in 
several  Library  Editions  of  Fielding's  Works.     A  cheap  well- 
printed  form   is   that  of   the  Works  of  Henry  Fielding  in   12 
volumes,  published  by  Gay  &  Bird.     Here  The  Story  of  Tom 
Jones    a    Foundling    is    in    4  volumes.     The    book    is    in    2 
volumes  in  Bohn's  Library — an  excellent  edition. 

4  Johnson's  Rasselas  has  frequently  been  reprinted,  but  there 
is  no  edition  for  a  book-lover  at  present  in  the  bookshops.     It 
is  included  in  Classic  Tales  in  a  volume  of    Bohn's    Standard 
Library.      The  wise   course   is    to   look   out   for  one  of   the 
earlier  editions  with  copper  plates  that    are  constantly  to  be 
found  on  second-hand  bookstalls.    But  Johnson's  Works  should 
be  bought  in  a  fine  octavo  edition. 


268         LORD    ACTON'S   LIST   OF 

9.  Vicar  of  Wake-field,  by  Goldsmith.1 

10.  Sentimental  'Journey,  by  Sterne.2 

n.  Nightmare  Abbey,  by  Peacock.3 

12.  Kenilworib,  by  Walter  Scott.4 

13.  Pere  Goriot,  by  Balzac.5 

1  Goldsmith's  Vicar  of  Wakefield  should  be  possessed  in  the 
edition  which  Mr.  Hugh  Thomson  has  illustrated  and  Mr. 
Austin  Dobson  has  edited  for  the  Macmillans.      There  is  a 
good  edition  of  Goldsmith's  Works  in  Bonn's  Library. 

2  Sterne's   Sentimental    Journey  is   also   a   volume   for   the 
second-hand  bookstall,    although  that  and  the    equally    fine 
Tristram  Shandy  may  be  obtained  in  many  pretty  forms.     I 
have  two  editions  of  Sterne's  books,  but  they  are  both  fine  old 
copies. 

3  There  are  two  very  good  editions  of  Peacock's  delightful 
romances.    Nightmare  Abbey  forms  a  volume  of  J.  M.  Dent's 
edition  in  9  volumes,  edited  by  Dr.  Garnett ;  and  the   whole 
of    Peacock's   remarkable  stories   are   contained     in     a  single 
volume  of  Newnes'  "  Thin  Paper  Classics." 

4  Sir  Walter    Scott's    novels  are  available  in  many  forms 
equally  worthy  of  a  good  library.     The  best  is  the  edition  pub- 
lished by  Jack  of  Edinburgh.     The  Temple  Library  of  Scott 
(J.  M.  Dent)  may  be  commended  for  those  who  desire  pocket 
volumes,  while  Mr.   Andrew  Lang's   Introductions    give    an 
added  value   to   an   edition   published   by    the    Macmillans, 
Scott's    twenty-eight  novels  are  indispensable  to  every  good 
library,  and  every  reader  will  have  his  own  favourite. 

5  Balzac's  novels  are  obtainable  in  a  good    translation  by 
Ellen  Marriage,  edited  by  George   Saintsbury,  published  in 
New  York  by  the  Macmillan  Company  and  in  London  by  J.  M. 
Dent. 


THE    HUNDRED    BEST   BOOKS    269 

14.  The  Three  Musketeers,  by  Dumas.1 

15.  Vanity  Fair,  by  Thackeray.2 

16.  Fillette,  by  Charlotte  Bronte'.3 

17.  David  Co^perfield,  by  Charles  Dickens.4 

1 8.  Bar  Chester  Towers,  by  Anthony  Trollope.5 

19.  Boccaccio's  Decameron* 

1  A    translation     of     Dumas'    novels     in    48    volumes    is 
published  by  Dent.     The   Three  Musketeers  is  in  2  volumes. 
There  are  many  cheap  one  volume  editions. 

2  Thackeray's  Fanity  Fair  is  pleasantly  read  in  the  edition 
of  his  novels  published  by  J.  M.  Dent.     His  original  publishers, 
Smith,  Elder  &  Co.,  issue  his  works  in  many  forms. 

3  The  best  edition  of  Charlotte   Bronte's  Fillette  is  that  in 
the  "Haworth  Edition,"  published  by  Smith,  Elder  &  Co., 
with  an  Introduction  by  Mrs.  Humphry  Ward. 

4  Charles    Dickens'  novels,  of   which  David,  Copperfield    is 
generally  pronounced  to  be  the  best,  should  be  obtained  in  the 
"  Oxford  India  Paper  Dickens  "  (Chapman  &  Hall  and  Henry 
Frowde).     A  serviceable  edition  is  that  published  by  the  Mac- 
millans,  with  Introductions  by  Charles  Dickens's  son,  but  that 
edition  still  fails  of  Our  Mutual  Friend  and  The  Mystery  of 
Edwin  Drood,  of  which  the  copyright  is  not  yet  exhausted. 

5  Anthony  Trollope's  novels  are  being  reissued,  in  England 
by  John  Lane  and  George  Bell  &  Sons,  and  in  America  in  a 
most  attractive  form  by  Dodd,  Mead  &  Co.     All  three  pub- 
lishers  have  a  good  edition  of   Barchester   Towers,  Trollope's 
best  novel. 

6  Boccaccio's  Decameron  is  in  my  library  in  many  forms — in 
3  volumes  of  the  Villon  Society's  publications,  translated  by 
John  Payne  ;  in  2  handsome  volumes  issued  by  Laurence   & 
Bullen  ;  and  in  the  Extra  Volumes  of  Bohn's  Library.   There 


2;o        LORD    ACTON'S   LIST   OF 

20.  Wuthering  Heights,  by  Emily  Bronte.1 

21.  The  Cloister  and  the  Hearth,  by  Charles  Reade.2 

22.  Les  Miser ables,  by  Victor  Hugo.3 

23.  Cranford,  by  Mrs.  Gaskell.4 

24.  Consuelo,  by  George  Sand.5 

25.  Charles  O^M  alley,  by  Charles  Lever.6 

is    a    pretty   edition    available   published    by    Gibbons  in  3 
volumes. 

1  Emily  Bronte's  Wuthering   Heights  forms  a  volume  of  the 
Haworth  Edition  of  the  Bronte  novels,  published  by  Smith, 
Elder  &  Co.     It  has  an  introduction  by  Mrs.  Humphry  Ward. 

2  Charles    Reade's   Cloister  and  the  Hearth  is  available  in 
many    forms.     The    pleasantest  is  in  4  volumes    issued     by 
Chatto  &  Windus,  with  an  Introduction  by  Sir  Walter  Besant. 
There  is  a  remarkable  shilling  edition  issued  by  Collins  of 
Glasgow. 

3  Victor  Hugo's  Les  Miserable*  may  be  most  pleasantly  read 
in  the  10  volumes,  translated  by  M.  Jules  Gray,  published  by 
J.  M.  Dent  &  Co. 

4  Mrs.  GaskelFs  Cranford  can  be  obtained  in  the  six  volume 
edition  of  that  writer's  works  published  by  Smith,  Elder  &  Co., 
with  Introductions  by  Dr.  A.  W.  Ward  ;  in  a  volume  illustrated 
by  Hugh   Thomson,   with   an    Introduction  by  Mrs.  Ritchie, 
published    by    the    Macmillans,    or    in  the  World's  Classics 
(Henry  Frowde),   where  there  is  an  additional   chapter    en- 
titled, "  The  Cage  at  Cranford." 

6  The  translation  of  George  Sand's  Consuelo  in  my  library  is 
by  Frank  H.  Potter,  4  volumes,  Dodd,  Mead  &  Co.,  New  York. 

6  Lever's  Charles  O'Malley  I  have  as  volumes  of  the  Com- 
plete Works  published  by  Downey.  There  is  a  pleasant  edition 
in  Nelson's  "  Pocket  Library." 


THE    HUNDRED    BEST   BOOKS    271 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

HISTORY,  ESSAYS,  ETC. 

1.  Macaulay,  History  of  England.1 

2.  Carlyle,  Past  and  Present? 

3.  Motley,  Dutch  Republic.3 

4.  Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire.*' 

1  Macaulay's  History  of  England  is  available  in  many  attrac- 
tive forms  from  the  original  publishers,  the  Longmans.      There 
is  a  neat  thin  paper  edition  for  the  pocket  in  5  volumes  issued 
by  Chatto  &  Windus. 

2  For  Carlyle's  Past  and  Present  I  recommend  the  Centenary 
Edition  of  Carlyle's   Works,  published  by  Chapman  &  Hall. 
There  is  an  annotated  edition  of  Sartor  Resartus  by  J.  A.  S. 
Barrett  (A.  &  C.  Black),  two  annotated  editions  of  The  French 
Revolution,  one  by  Dr.  Holland  Rose  (G.  Bell  &  Sons),  and  an- 
other   by  C.  R.  L.  Fletcher,  3    volumes   (Methuen),  and  an 
annotated  edition  of  The  Cromwell  Letters,  edited  by  S.  C. 
Lomax,    3    volumes     (Methuen).      No     publisher     has     yet 
attempted  an  annotated  edition  of  Past  and  Present,  but  Sir 
Ernest    Clarke's  translation  of  Jocelyn  of  Bragelond  (Chatto  & 
Windus)  may  be  commended  as  supplemental  to  Carlyle's  most 
delightful  book. 

3  Motley's    Works   are  available  in  9  volumes  of  a  Library 
Edition  published  by  John  Murray.     A  cheaper  issue  of  the 
Dutch  Republic  is  that  in  3  volumes  of  the  World's  Classics,  to 
which  I  have  contributed  a  biographical  introduction. 

4  For  many  years  the  one  standard  edition  of  Gibbon  was  that 
published  by  John  Murray,  in  8  volumes,  with  notes  by  Dean 
Milman  and  others.     It  has   been  superseded   by    Professor 
Bury's  annotated  edition  in  7  volumes  (Methuen). 


272         LORD    ACTON'S    LIST   OF 

5.  Plutarch's  Lives.* 

6.  Montaigne's  Essays? 

7.  Richard  Steele,  Essays.3 

8.  Lamb,  Essays  of  Eli  a* 

9.  De  Quincey,  Opium  Eater.6 

1  Plutarch's  Lives,  translated  by  A.   Stewart  and  George 
Long,  form  4  volumes  of   Bonn's   Standard   Library.     There 
is  a  handy  volume  for  the  pocket  in  Dent's  Temple  Classics  in 
10  volumes,  translated  by  Sir  Thomas  North. 

2  Montaigne's  Essays  I  have  in  three  forms  ;   in  the  Tudor 
Translations  (David  Nutt),  where  there  is  an  Introduction  to 
the  6  volumes  of  Sir  Thomas  North's  translation  by  the  Rt.  Hon. 
George    Wyndham  ;    in  Dent's  Temple  Classics,  where  John 
Florio's    translation  is  given  in  5  volumes.     A    much    valued 
edition   is    that  in  3    volumes,    the    translation    by    Charles 
Cotton,  published  by  Reeves  &  Turner  in  1877. 

3  Steele's  essays  were  written  for  the  Tatler  and  the  Spectator 
side  by  side  with  those  of  Addison.     The  best  edition  of  The 
Spectator  is   that  published   in  8  volumes,  edited  by   George 
A.  Aitken  for  Nimmo,  and  of  The  Tatler  that  published  in  4 
volumes,  edited  also  by  Mr.  Aitken  for  Duckworth  &  Co. 

4  Lamb's  Essays  of  Elia  can  be  read  in  a  volume  of  the 
Eversley  Library  (Macmillan),  edited  by  Canon  Ainger.    The 
standard  edition  of  Lamb's  Works  is  that  edited  by  Mr.  E.  V. 
Lucas,  in  7  volumes,  for  Methuen.     Mr.  Lucas's  biography  of 
Lamb  has  superseded  all  others. 

5  Thomas  de  Quincey's  Opium  Eater  may  be  obtained  as  a 
volume   of    Newnes's  Thin   Paper   Classics,    in    the  World's 
Classics,  or  in  Dent's  Everyman's  Library.     But  the  Complete 
Works  of  De  Quincey,  in  16  volumes,  edited  by  David  Mason 
and  published  by  A.  &  C.  Black,  should  be  in  every  library. 


THE    HUNDRED    BEST   BOOKS    273 

10.  Hazlitt,  Essays.1 

11.  Borrow,  Lavengro* 

12.  Emerson,  Representative  Men* 

13.  Landor,  Imaginary  Conversations* 

14.  Arnold,  Essays  in  Criticism.6 

15.  Herodotus,  Macaulay's  Translation* 

1  William  Hazlitt  never  received  the  treatment  he  deserved 
until  Mr.  J.  M.  Dent  issued  in  1903  his  Collected.  Works,  in  1 3 
volumes,   edited   by  A.   R.    Waller  and  Arnold   Glover.     Of 
cheap  reprints  of  Hazlitt  I  commend  The  Spirit  of  the  Age, 
Winterslow  and  Sketches  and,  Essays,  three  separate  volumes  of 
the  World's  Classics  (Frowde). 

2  George    Sorrow's  Lavengro  should  only  be  read  in  Mr. 
John  Murray's  edition,  as  it  there  contains  certain  additional 
and  valuable  matter  gathered  from  the  original  manuscript  by 
William  I.   Knapp.     The  Library  Edition  of    Borrow,  in  6 
volumes  (Murray),  may  be  particularly  commended. 

3  Emerson's  Complete  Works  are  published    by  the  Rout- 
ledges  in  4  volumes,  in   which    Representative    Men    may    be 
found   in  Vol.   II.     Some   may  prefer   the  Eversley   Library 
Emerson,   which     has     an     Introduction     by    John     Morley. 
There  are  many  cheap  editions  of  about  equal  value. 

4  Lander's  Imaginary  Conversations  form  six  volumes  of  the 
complete  Landor,  edited  by  Charles  G.  Crump,  and  published 
in  10  volumes  by  J.  M.  Dent. 

5  Matthew  Arnold's  Essays  in   Criticism  is    published    by 
Macmillan.     It  also  forms  Vol.  Ill  of  the  Library  Edition  of 
his    Works   in    15    volumes.      A  "Second    Series"  has    less 
significance. 

6  The  Works  of  Herodotus,   published   by  the  Macmillans, 
translated  by  George  C.  Macaulay,  is  the  best  edition  for  the 

I.M.  18 


274        LORD    ACTON'S    LIST   OF 

1 6.  Howell's  Familiar  Letters.* 

17.  Buckle's  History  of  Civilization.2 

1 8.  Tacitus,  Church  and  Brodribb's  Translation.3 

19.  Mitford's  Our  Pillage.* 

20.  Green's  Short  History  of  the  English  People? 

general  reader.  Canon  Rawlinson's  Herodotus,  published  by 
John  Murray,  has  had  a  longer  life,  but  is  now  only  published 
in  an  abridged  form. 

1  James   Howell's  Familiar  Letters,  or  Epistolae  Ho  Elianae, 
should  be    read    in  the  edition   published    in   2  volumes  by 
David  Nutt,  with  an  Introduction  by  Joseph  Jacobs. 

2  The  History  of  Civilization,  by  Henry  Thomas  Buckle,  is 
in  my  library  in  the  original  2  volumes   published  by  Parker 
in  1857.     It  is  now  issued  in  3  volumes  in  Longman's  Silver 
Library,  and  in  3  volumes  in  the  World's  Classics. 

3  The  History  of  Tacitus  should    be  read  in  the  translation 
by  Alfred  John  Church  and  William  Jackson  Brodripp.      It 
is  published  by  the  Macmillans. 

4  Our  Village,  by  Mary  Russell   Mitford,  is  a  collection  of 
essays  which  in  their  completest  form  may  be  obtained  in  two 
volumes  of  Bohn's  Library  (Bell).    The  essential  essays  should 
be  possessed  in  the  edition  published  by  the  Macmillans — Our 
Village,  by  Mary  Russell  Mitford,  with  an  Introduction  by 
Anne  Thackeray  Ritchie,   and  one  hundred  illustrations   by 
Hugh  Thomson. 

6  Green's  Short  History  of  the  English  People  is  published  by 
the  Macmillans  in  i  volume,  or  illustrated  in  4  volumes. 
The  book  was  enlarged,  but  disimproved,  under  the  title  of 
A  History  of  the  English  People,  in  4  volumes,  uniform  with 
the  Conquest  of  England  and  the  Making  of  England  by  the 
same  author. 


THE   HUNDRED    BEST   BOOKS    275 

21.  Taine,  Ancient  Regime.* 

22.  Bourrienne,  Napoleon? 

23.  Tocqueville,  Democracy  in  America* 

24.  Walton,  Corn-pleat  Angler* 


1  Taine's  Ancient  Regime  is  a  good    introduction   to  the 
conditions  which  made  the  French  Revolution.     It  forms  the 
first  volume  of  Les  Origines  de  la  France  Contemporaine,  and 
may    be  read  in  a  translation  by  John  Durand,  published    by 
Dalby,  Isbister  &  Co.  in  1877. 

2  The  Life  of  Napoleon  has  been  written  by  many  pens,  in 
our  own  day  most  competently  by  Dr.  Holland  Rose  (2  vols. 
Bell)  ;  but  a  good  account  of  the  Emperor,  indispensable  for 
some    particulars   and  an  undoubted  classic,  is   that  by    de 
Bourrienne,    Napoleon's    private    secretary,   published    in    an 
English  translation,  in  4  volumes,  by  Bentley  in  1836. 

3  Democracy  in  America,  by  Alexis   de  Tocqueville,  may  be 
had  in  a  translation  by  Henry  Reeve,  published  in  2  volumes 
by  the  Longmans.     Read  also  A  History  of  the  United  States  by 
C.  Benjamin  Andrews,  2  volumes  (Smith,  Elder),  and  above  all 
the    American    Commonwealth,  by    James    Bryce,  2   volumes 
(Macmillan). 

4  The  Compleat  Angler  of   Isaac  Walton  may  be  purchased  in 
many  forms.     I  have  a  fine  library  edition  edited  by  that  prince 
of  living  anglers,  Mr.  R.  B.  Marston,  called  The  Lea  and  Dove 
Edition,  this  being  the  looth  edition  of   the    book    (Sampson 
Low,  1888).      I  have  also  an  edition  edited  by  George  A.  B. 
Dewar,  with  an  Introduction  by  Sir  Edward  Grey  and  Etchings 
by  William  Strang  and  D.  Y.  Cameron,    2    volumes    (Free- 
mantle),   and  a  i    volume  edition    published   by   Ingram   & 
Cooke  in  the  Illustrated  Library. 


276        LORD    ACTON'S    LIST   OF 

25    White,  Natural  History  of  Selbourne.1- 

BIOGRAPHICAL  AND  AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. 

1.  Boswell's  Johnson.2 

2.  Lockhart's  Scott.3 

3.  Pepys's  Diary.4 

1  There     are    many   editions   of   Gilbert   White's    Natural 
History  of  Selbourne  to  be  commended.     Three  that  are  in  my 
library  are  (l)  edited  with  an  Introduction  and  Notes  by  L.  C. 
Miall  and  W.  Warde  Fowler  (Methuen)  ;  (2)  edited  with  Notes 
by  Grant  Allen,  illustrated  by  Edmund  H.  New  (John  Lane)  ; 
(3)  rearranged  and  classified  under  subjects  by  Charles  Mosley 
(Elliot  Stock). 

2  Of  Boswelfs  Life  of  Johnson  there  are  innumerable  editions. 
The  special  enthusiast  will  not  be  happy  until  he  possesses  Dr. 
Birkbeck  Hill's  edition  in  6  volumes  (Clarendon  Press).     The 
most  satisfactory,  I  volume  edition  is  that   published   on    thin 
paper  by  Henry  Frowde.     I  have  in  my  library  also  a  copy 
of   the   first   edition  of  Boswell  in   2    volumes.     It  was   pub- 
lished by  Henry  Baldwin  in  1791. 

3  The  best  edition  of  Lockhart's  Life  of  Scott  is  that  published 
in  10  volumes  by  Jack  of  Edinburgh.     Readers  should  beware 
of  abridgments,  although  one  of  these  was  made  by  Lockhart 
himself.     The  whole  eighty-five  chapters  are  worth  reading, 
even  in  the  I  volume  edition  published  by  A.  &  C  Black. 

4  Pepys's  Diary  can  be  obtained  in   Bonn's  Library  or  in 
Newnes'  Thin  Paper  Classics,  but  Pepys  should  only  be   read 
under  Mr.  H.  B.  Wheatley's  guidance.     A  cheap  edition  of 


THE   HUNDRED    BEST   BOOKS    277 

4.  Walpole's  Letters.1 

5.  The  Memoirs  of  Count  de  Gramont.2 

6.  Gray's  Letters.3 

7.  Southey's  Nelson.4 

8.  Moore's  Byron.5 

his  book,  in  8  volumes,  has  recently  been  published  by 
George  Bell  &  Sons.  I  have  No.  2  of  the  large  paper  edition  of 
this  book,  No.  I  having  gone  to  Pepys's  own  college  of  Braze- 
nose,  where  the  Pepys  cypher  is  preserved. 

1  Until  recently  one  knew  Walpole's  Letters  only  through 
Peter  Cunningham's  edition,  in  9  volumes  (Bentley),  and  this 
has  still  exclusive   matter  for   the  enthusiast,   Cunningham's 
Introduction  to  wit  ;  but  the  Clarendon  Press  has  now  pub- 
lished  Walpole's    Letters,   edited  by  Mrs.  Paget  Toynbee,  in 
1 6  volumes,  or  in  8.     Here  are  to  be  found  more  letters  than 
in  any  previous  edition. 

2  The  Memoirs  of  Count  de  Gramont,  by  Anthony,  Count 
Hamilton,  can  be  obtained  in  splendid  type,  unannotated,  in  an 
edition  published  by  Arthur  L.  Humphreys.    A  well-illustrated 
and  well-edited  edition  is  that  published  by  Bickers  of  London 
and  Scribner  of  New  York,  edited  by  Allan  Fea. 

3  Gray's   Letters,  with  poems  and  life,  form  4  volumes  in 
Macmillan's  Eversley  Library,  edited  by  Edmund  Gosse. 

4  You  can  obtain  Southey's  Nelson,  originally  written  for 
Murray's  Pocket  Library  as  a  publisher's  commission,  in  one 
well-printed   volume,   with   Introduction   by  David  Hannay, 
published   by  William   Heinemann.     It   should,   however,  be 
supplemented    in    the    Life  by  Captain  Mahan  (2   volumes, 
Sampson  Low  &  Co.),  or  by  Professor  Laugh  ton's  Nelson  and 
His  Companion  in  Arms  (George  Allen). 

*  Moore's  Life  and  Letters  of  Byron  is  published  by  John 


278        LORD    ACTON'S   LIST   OF 

9.  Hogg's  Shelley.1 

10.  Rousseau's  Confessions.2 

11.  Froude's  Carlyle.3 


Murray  in  6  volumes.  It  is  best  purchased  second-hand  in  an 
old  set.  Moore's  book  must  be  supplemented  by  the  6  volumes 
of  Correspondence  edited  by  Rowland  Prothero  for  Mr.  Murray. 

1  Sir  George  Trevelyan  says  in  his  Early  History  of  Charles 
James  Fox  that  Hogg's  Life  of  Shelley  is  "  perhaps  the  most 
interesting  book  in  our  language  that  has  never  been  repub- 
lished."    The  reproach  has  been  in  some  slight  measure  removed 
by  a  cheap  reprint  in  small  type  issued  by  the  Routledges  in 
1906.     The  reader  should,  however,  secure  a  copy  of  the  first 
edition,   2  volumes,   1857.     Professor  Dowden,  in  his  Life  of 
Shelley,  1886,  uses  the  book  freely. 

2  "  What  is  the  best  book   you  have  ever  read  ?  "  Emerson 
is  said  to  have  asked  George  Eliot  when  she  was  about  twenty- 
two  years  of  age  and  residing,  unknown,  near  Coventry.  "Rous- 
seau's   Confessions"   was    the   reply.     "  I    agree   with    you," 
Emerson  answered.     But  the  book  should  not  be  read  in  a 
translation.      The   completest  translation  is  one  in  2  volumes 
published  by  Nicholls.     There  is  a  more  abridged  translation 
by  Gibbons  in  4  volumes. 

8  The  Life  of  Carlyle,  by  James  Anthony  Froude,  which 
created  so  much  controversy  upon  its  publication,  is  worthy  of 
a  cheap  edition,  which  does  not,  however,  seem  to  be  forth- 
coming. The  book  appeared  in  4  volumes,  The  First  Forty 
Tears  in  1882  and  Life  in  London  in  1884.  It  had  been  preceded 
by  Reminiscences  in  1881.  Every  one  should  read  the  Letters 
and  Memorials  of  Jane  Welsh  Carlyle,  3  volumes,  1883.  All 
the  9  volumes  are  published  by  the  Longmans. 


THE   HUNDRED    BEST   BOOKS    279 

12.  Rogers's  Table  Talk.1 

13.  Confessions  of  St.  Augustine.2 

14.  Amiel's  Journal.3 

15.  Meditations  of  Marcus  Aurelius.4 

1 6.  Lewes's  Life  of  Goethe.5 


1  Samuel  Rogers'   Table  Talk  has    been  given  us  in    two 
forms,  first  as  Recollections  of  the  Table  Talk  of  Samuel  Rogers, 
edited  by  Alexander  Dyce,  1856,  and  second  as  Reminiscences  of 
Samuel   Rogers,    1859.     The    Recollections   were    reprinted    in 
handsome  form  by  H.  A.  Rogers,  of  New  Southgate,  in  1887, 
and  the  material  was  combined  in  a  single  volume  in  1903  by 
G.  H.  Powell  (R.  Brimley  Johnson).     I  have  the  four  books, 
and  delight  in  the  many  good  stories  they  contain. 

2  The  Confessions  of  St.  Augustine  may  be  commended    in 
many  small  and  handy  editions.     One,  with  an  Introduction 
by  Alice  Meynell,  was  published  in  1900.     The  most  beauti- 
fully printed  modern  edition  is  that  issued  by  Arthur  Hum- 
phreys in  his  Classical  Series. 

3  Amiel's  Journal  is  a  fine  piece  of   introspection.     A  trans- 
lation by  Mrs.  Humphry  Ward  is  published    in    2    volumes 
by  the  Macmillans.     De  Senancour's  Obermann,  translated   by 
A.  E.  Waite  (Wellby),  should  be  read  in  this  connexion. 

4  The  Meditations  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  translated  by  George 
Long,  appears  as  a  volume  of  Bohn's  Library,  and  more  beau- 
tifully printed  in  the  Library  of  Arthur  Humphreys.     There 
are    many    other   good    translations — one    by    John    Jackson, 
issued  in  1906  by  the  Clarendon  Press,  has  great  merit. 

6  George  Henry  Lewes's  Life  of  Goethe  has  gone  through 
many  editions  and  remains  a  fascinating  book,  although  it  may 
be  supplemented  by  the  translation  of  Duntzer's  Life  of 


280        LORD    ACTON'S   LIST   OF 

17.  Sime's  Life  of  Lessing.1 

1 8.  Franklin's  Autobiography.2 

19.  Greville's  Memoirs.3 

20.  Forster's  Life  of  Dickens.4 

21.  Madame  D'Arblay's  Diary.5 

Goethe,  2  volumes,  Macmillan,  and    Bielschowsky's    Life    of 
Goethe,  Vols.  I  and  II  (Putnams). 

1  The  Life  of  Lessing,    by    James    Sime,    is    not    a    great 
biography,  but  it  is  an  interesting  and  most  profitable  study  of 
a  noble  man.     Lessing  will  be  an  inspiration  greater  almost  than 
any  other  of  the  moderns  for  those  who  are  brought  in  contact 
with  his  fine  personality.     The  book  is  in  2  volumes,  published 
by  the  Trubners. 

2  You  can  read  Benjamin    Franklin's    Aiitobiography    in    I 
volume  (Dent),  or  in  his  Collected  Works — Memoirs  of  the  Life 
and  Writings  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  edited  by   his  grandson, 
William  Temple  Franklin,  6  volumes  (Colburn),  1819.    There 
have  been  at   least  two   expensive   reprints    of    his    Works  of 
late  years. 

8  The  Grtville  Memoirs  were  published  in  large  octavo  form 
in  the  first  place.  Much  scandal  was  omitted  from  the  second 
edition.  They  are  now  obtainable  in  8  volumes  of  Long- 
mans' Silver  Library.  They  form  an  interesting  glimpse  into 
the  Court  life  of  the  later  Guelphs. 

4  It  has  been  complained  of  John  Forster's  Life  of  Charles 
Dickens  that  there  is  too  much  Forster  and  not  enough  Dickens. 
Yet  it  is  the  only  guide  to  the  life-story  of  the  greatest  of 
the  Victorian  novelists.  Is  most  pleasant  to  read  in  the  2 
volumes  of  the  Gadshill  Edition,  published  by  Chapman  & 
Hall. 

6  The  Early  Diary  of  Frances  Burney,  afterwards    Madame 


THE    HUNDRED    BEST   BOOKS    281 

22.  Newman's  Apologia.1 

23.  The  Paston  Letters.2 

24.  Cellini's  Autobiography.3 

25.  Browne's  Religio  Medici.4 

My  readers  for  the  most  part  have  read  every 
one  of  these  books.  I  throw  out  this  list  as  a 

D'Arblay,  edited  by  Annie  Raine  Ellis,  has  just  been  reprinted 
in  two  volumes  of  Bonn's  Library  (Bell).  We  owe  also  to  Mr. 
Austen  Dobson  a  fine  reprint  of  the  later  and  more  important 
Diaries,  which  he  has  edited  in  6  volumes  for  the  Macmillans. 

1  The  Apologia  pro  Vita  Sud  of  John  Henry  Newman  is  one 
of  the  volumes  of  Cardinal  Newman's  Collected  Works  issued 
by  the  Longmans.  It  is  the  most  interesting,  and  is  perhaps 
the  most  destined  to  survive,  of  all  the  books  of  theological 
controversy  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

z  There  is  practically  but  one  edition  of  the  Paston  Letters, 
that  edited  by  James  Gairdner,  of  the  Public  Record  Office, 
and  published  by  the  firm  of  Archibald  Constable.  The 
luxurious  Library  Edition  issued  by  Chatto  &  Windus  in  6 
volumes  should  be  acquired  if  possible. 

3  The  Autobiography  of  Benvenuto  Cellini   is  best  known  in 
the  translation  of  Thomas  Roscoe  in  Bohn's  Library.     Mr.  J. 
Addington  Symonds,  however,  made  a  new  translation,  issued 
in  two  fine  volumes  by  Nimmo. 

4  The  Religio  Medici  of  Sir  Thomas  Browne  can  be  obtained 
in  many  forms,  although  the  well-to-do  collector  will  be  satis- 
fied only  with  the  edition  edited  by  Simon  Wilkin.     The  book 
is    admirably  edited  by  W.  A.   Greenhill  for  the  "  Golden 
Treasury  Series." 


282       LORD   ACTON'S    LIST  OF 

tentative  effort  in  the  direction  of  suggesting  a 
hundred  books  with  which  to  start  a  library.  The 
young  student  will  find  much  to  amuse,  and  cer- 
tainly nothing  here  to  bore  him.  These  books 
will  not  make  him  a  prig,  as  Mr.  James  Payn 
said  that  Lord  Avebury's  list  would  make  him  a 
prig.  They  will  make  the  dull  man  less  dull,  the 
bright  man  brighter.  Here  is  good,  cheerful, 
robust  reading  for  boy  and  girl,  for  man  and 
woman.  There  are  many  sins  of  omission,  but 
none  of  commission.  Our  young  friend  will  add 
to  this  list  fast  enough,  but  there  is  nothing  in 
it  that  he  may  not  read  with  profit.  These 
books,  I  repeat,  make  an  universal  appeal.  The 
learned  man  may  enjoy  them,  the  unlearned  may 
enjoy  them  also.  They  are,  as  Hamlet  is,  of 
universal  interest.  Devotion  to  science  will  not 
impair  a  taste  for  them,  nor  will  zest  for  abstract 
speculations.  Not  even  those  who  are  "  better 
skilled  in  grammar  than  in  poetry  "  can  fail  to 
appreciate.  These  hundred  books  will  in  the 
main  be  the  hundred  best  books  of  many  of  my 
readers  who  are  quite  capable  of  selecting  for 
themselves.  One  last  word  of  advice.  Let  not 
the  young  reader  buy  large  quantities  of  books 


THE   HUNDRED   BEST   BOOKS     283 

at  once  or  be  beguiled  into  subscribing  for 
some  cheap  series  which  will  save  him  the 
trouble  of  selecting.  He  may  buy  many  books 
from  such  cheap  series  afterwards,  but  not  his 
first  hundred,  I  think.  These  should  be  ac- 
quired through  much  saving,  and  purchased 
with  great  thought  and  deliberation.  The 
purchase  of  a  book  should  become  to  the  young 
booklover  a  most  solemn  function. 


Butler  tind  Tanner,  The  Sehuood  Printing  Works,  Frame,  and  London 


